Figure 20.21 shows the flowsheet for a reactive distillation column for the production of ethylene glycol (EG) from ethylene oxide (EO) and water (Al-Arfaj and Luyben, 2002):
\[\mathrm{EO}+\mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O} \rightarrow \mathrm{EG}\]
Note that the reaction proceeds to \(100 \%\) conversion in the column with part of the EG undergoing a secondary (undesired) reaction to diethylene glycol (DEG):

Transcribed Image Text:

EOEG DEG Qc=74 MW Pp-15 atm Fw HO Feed LD L 26.3 kmol/hr Fro EO Feed 27.5 kmol/hr. QR = 6.9 MW LR xD (>95% HO) B x (95% EG) Figure 20.21 Ethylene glycol reactive distillation column.