Patent ID: 8217190

Claim:
A process for the production of ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol comprising steps of (i) supplying ethylene and oxygen to an ethylene oxide reactor wherein ethylene and oxygen react to produce ethylene oxide, thereby producing a reactor product stream; (ii) supplying the reactor product stream to an ethylene oxide absorber having a quench section and an absorber section downstream of the quench section, wherein the reactor product stream is contacted with a recirculating aqueous solution in the quench section and a base is added to the recirculating aqueous solution, and wherein ethylene oxide is recovered from the reactor product stream by absorption in water in the absorber section, thereby producing a fat absorbent stream; (iii) supplying the fat absorbent stream to an ethylene oxide stripper wherein the fat absorbent stream is steam stripped, thereby producing a concentrated ethylene oxide stream and a lean absorbent stream; (iv) recirculating the lean absorbent stream to the ethylene oxide absorber; (v) supplying the concentrated ethylene oxide stream to an ethylene oxide finishing unit, thereby producing a purified ethylene oxide stream; and (vi) supplying the concentrated ethylene oxide stream, the purified ethylene oxide stream or any other ethylene oxide-containing stream to an ethylene glycol plant, producing ethylene glycol, wherein the ethylene glycol plant comprises an ethylene glycol reactor, a multistage evaporator system, a drying column, and a fractional distillation system, and wherein a water recycle stream passes from the multistage evaporator system to the ethylene glycol reactor and a water-depleted ethylene glycol stream passes from the multistage evaporator to the drying column; wherein the process comprises the additional step of (vii) adding a base at one or more positions downstream of the quench section of the ethylene oxide absorber in at least one region where glycol esters are hydrolyzed to organic acid and ethylene glycol other than the regions of the lean absorbent stream and the water recycle stream passing from the evaporator system to the ethylene glycol reactor.