Shehata Walaa M, Nady Taha G, Gad Fatma K, Shoaib Abeer M, Bhran Ahmed A
Petroleum Refining and Petrochemical Engineering Department Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, P.O. Box: 43221, Suez, Egypt.
United Gas Derivative Company, Port Said, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 17;14(1):28375. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-77713-y.
Mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) is a high-volume chemical intermediate used as a raw material for a variety of chemical products. It could also be used as a hydrate inhibitor in natural gas. Recently, the importance of MEG has been increased due to its usage as a supporting emulsifier in diesel engines to reduce NOx and soot emissions, in addition to its usage as an additive to dual fuel diesel engines. The increase consumption of MEG in wide range of applications leads to the search for the most efficient, environmental friendly and cost effective technique to produce more quantities of it. MEG is most commonly manufactured via the hydration of ethylene oxide (EO). In this work, two different technologies of EO hydration to produce MEG are compared; the direct hydration of EO with water and the indirect hydration through the usage of ethylene carbonate (EC) as an intermediate. Comparative economic and environmental impact assessments were performed based on plant-scale simulations (per 600,000 tons per year of MEG produced) of the two hydration technologies using Aspen HYSYS version 11 simulation software. Economic analysis showed that the utilities' energy consumption for direct hydration process is significantly higher than for indirect hydration by 279 megawatts. On the other hand, the environmental impact assessments showed that GHG emissions from natural gas power generation from utilities from direct hydration are three times greater than GHG emissions from indirect hydration. This leads to indirect hydration of ethylene oxide through ethylene carbonate formation being considered economically and environmentally preferable compared to the direct hydration process of ethylene oxide.
单乙二醇（MEG）是一种大量使用的化学中间体，用作多种化学产品的原料。它还可用作天然气中的水合物抑制剂。最近，MEG的重要性有所提高，这是因为它除了用作双燃料柴油发动机的添加剂外，还用作柴油发动机中的辅助乳化剂以减少氮氧化物和烟尘排放。MEG在广泛应用中的消费量增加，促使人们寻找生产更多MEG的最有效、环保且具有成本效益的技术。MEG最常见的生产方法是环氧乙烷（EO）水合。在这项工作中，比较了两种不同的环氧乙烷水合生产MEG的技术；环氧乙烷与水的直接水合以及通过使用碳酸亚乙酯（EC）作为中间体的间接水合。使用Aspen HYSYS 11版模拟软件，基于两种水合技术的工厂规模模拟（每年生产60万吨MEG）进行了比较经济和环境影响评估。经济分析表明，直接水合过程的公用事业能源消耗比间接水合高279兆瓦。另一方面，环境影响评估表明，直接水合公用事业天然气发电产生的温室气体排放量是间接水合的三倍。这使得与环氧乙烷直接水合过程相比，通过碳酸亚乙酯形成进行环氧乙烷间接水合在经济和环境方面更具优势。
