Ethylene oxide process improvement

摘要

An improved ethylene oxide process whereby residual heat is recovered from the reactor coolant by generating steam. The improvement enables the plant to operate using an improved silver-based catalyst with lower optimum operating temperature than that of the alumina-supported silver catalyst for which the plant was designed. The process comprises the steps of passing the coolant from the reactor to at least one first coolant condenser(s) wherein at least part of the coolant vapor is condensed by exchanging heat with boiler feed water to generate steam. The vapor-liquid two-phase stream coming out of said first coolant condenser(s) is passed through a vapor-liquid separator whereby the liquid coolant is separated from the coolant vapor and flows via a "U" trap to coolant surge drum(s) and the coolant vapor passes through a second condenser(s) adapted for generating steam with a lower pressure than that of the steam generated by said first coolant condenser; wherein said "U" trap has a sufficient height to insure that the coolant vapor flows upward to said second coolant condenser(s).