PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF ETHYLENE OXIDE

摘要

TITLE IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF ETHYLENE OXIDE INVENTOR BRIAN J. OZERO The conventional process for the recovery of ethylene oxide produced by the silver catalyzed, vapor phase, partial oxidation of ethylene with molecular oxygen involves a sequence of steps including absorption in water of the ethylene oxide contained in the reaction effluent. The ethylene oxide-containing absorbate is then stripped and the vapor thus generated is subjected to reabsorption, also in water. This invention provides an improved stripper-reabsorption system and includes the steps of partial condensation of the stripper overhead and introduction of an additional absorbent stream into the reabsorption step.