Purification of ethylene glycol recovered from polyester resins

摘要

There is described a process for removing dimethyl terephthalate contaminants from ethylene glycol. The process comprises distilling ethylene glycol in the presence of an ester exchange catalyst to cause reaction between ethylene glycol and dimethyl terephthalate to form compounds that are less volatile than either ethylene glycol or dimethyl terephthalate, such as bishydroxyethyl terephthalate.