Alkylene oxide purification processes and systems

摘要

Processes and systems for purifying ethylene oxide, including introducing a feed stream including ethylene oxide to a heat exchanger to heat the feed stream, feeding the heated feed stream to a distillation apparatus base below a first stage, removing from the distillation apparatus an impurity fraction as a top exit stream from the distillation apparatus located at a top take-off on the distillation apparatus, removing from the distillation apparatus an ethylene oxide stream of 99.7 weight percent purity, based on the total weight of the ethylene oxide stream, from the distillation apparatus, and removing from the distillation apparatus an aldehyde enriched fraction as a bottom stream from the distillation apparatus, where the aldehyde enriched fraction is fed directly to a glycol reactor.

主权项

1. A process for distilling ethylene oxide from a feed stream, the process comprising:
introducing the feed stream, wherein the feed stream includes ethylene oxide and an amount of aldehyde, into a heat exchanger to heat the feed stream; feeding the heated feed stream to a base of a distillation apparatus located below a first separation stage of a plurality of separation stages that are numbered from a bottom of the distillation apparatus to a top of the distillation apparatus; removing from the distillation apparatus an impurity fraction as a top exit stream located at a top take-off on the distillation apparatus; removing from the distillation apparatus an ethylene oxide stream of at least 99.7 weight percent purity, based on the total weight of the ethylene oxide stream; and removing from the distillation apparatus an aldehyde enriched fraction as a bottom stream.