Ethylene oxide Scientific Design process

Ethylene oxide (qv) was once produced by the chlorohydrin process, but this process was slowly abandoned starting in 1937 when Union Carbide Corp. developed and commercialized the silver-catalyzed air oxidation of ethylene process patented in 1931 (67). Union Carbide Corp. is stiU. the world s largest ethylene oxide producer, but most other manufacturers Hcense either the Shell or Scientific Design process. Shell has the dominant patent position in ethylene oxide catalysts, which is the result of the development of highly effective methods of silver deposition on alumina (29), and the discovery of the importance of estabUshing precise parts per million levels of the higher alkaU metal elements on the catalyst surface (68). The most recent patents describe the addition of trace amounts of rhenium and various Group (VI) elements (69). 

Activated alumina and phosphoric acid on a suitable support have become the choices for an iadustrial process. Ziac oxide with alumina has also been claimed to be a good catalyst. The actual mechanism of dehydration is not known. In iadustrial production, the ethylene yield is 94 to 99% of the theoretical value depending on the processiag scheme. Traces of aldehyde, acids, higher hydrocarbons, and carbon oxides, as well as water, have to be removed. Fixed-bed processes developed at the beginning of this century have been commercialized in many countries, and small-scale industries are still in operation in Brazil and India. New fluid-bed processes have been developed to reduce the plant investment and operating costs (102,103). Commercially available processes include the Lummus processes (fixed and fluidized-bed processes), Halcon/Scientific Design process, NIKK/JGC process, and the Petrobras process. In all these processes, typical ethylene yield is between 94 and 99%. 

Scientific Design Company, Inc. Ethanolamines Ethylene oxide and ammonia Process offers high-quality product with wide product distribution 4 1979... 

Scientific Design Company, Inc. Glycol Ethers Ethylene oxide and alcohols Process offers high product quality with wide product distribution 2 1974... 

Figure 7-3. The Scientific Design Co. Ethylene Oxide process (1) reactor, (2) scrubber, (3,4) C02 removal, (5) stripper, (6,7) fractionators.

Figure 7-4. The Scientific Design Co. process for producing ethylene glycols from ethylene oxide (1) feed tank, (2) reactor, (3,4,5) multiple stage evaporators, 4 operates at lower pressure than 3, while 5 operates under vacuum, evaporated water is recycled to feed tank, (6) light ends stripper, (7,8) vacuum distillation columns.

Ethylene oxide was formerly made in a two-stage process by first adding HOCl to ethylene and then removing HCl. However, in the 1960s Scientific Design, Union Carbide, and Shell Oil developed a one-step direct oxidation process that has largely replaced the old chlorohydrin process. 

Scientific Design A chemical engineering company, founded in New York in 1946 by R. Landau and H. Rehnberg. It developed many processes, of which the first and perhaps the best known was that for oxidizing ethylene to ethylene oxide, using a silver catalyst. Later it merged with Halcon Corporation, to become the Halcon SD Group. See Halcon, Oxirane. 

Scientific Design. Company, Inc Ethylene glycol Ethylene and oxygen or ethylene oxide Process features variable feed capabilities with high-quality product 55 1998... 

The earliest processes employed air as the oxidant (Distillers IG Farben, Scientific Design, Union Carbide). Modem plants are nearly all supplied with oxygen (Chenuscbe Werke-Hiih, Japan Catalytic, Scientific Design second version. Shell, SNAM Progetti Societa Nazionale Metanodotti). The main concern of all these installations is the effective removal of the heat produced during the reaction. This is achieved by operation with a low ethylene conversion rate, cold product recycle, and external cooling of the catalyst bed. 

Scientific Design Company, Inc. Ethylene Oxide Ethylene and oxygen Efficient process yielding highest product quality. Improved catalyst 48 2009... 

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