Novel hydrogenation reactor for synthesis gas-to-ethylene glycol process

Abstract

The present invention relates to a novel hydrogenation reactor for a synthesis gas-to-ethylene glycol process. The reactor comprises a reactor housing, a heat exchange plate pair beam, a cooling medium distribution total pipe, a cooling medium distribution branch pipe, a cooling medium collection total pipe, and a cooling medium collection branch pipe, wherein the bottom portion of the reactor housing is provided with a cooling medium inlet, the top portion is provided with a cooling medium outlet, one end of the heat exchange plate pair beam is connected with the cooling medium inlet of the reactor housing through the cooling medium distribution total pipe and the cooling medium distribution branch pipe, the other end is connected with the cooling medium outlet of the reactor housing through the cooling medium collection total pipe and the cooling medium collection branch pipe, the heat exchange plate pair beam comprises a plurality of heat exchange plate pairs, the plate space exists in the heat exchange plate, a catalyst is filled between the adjacent heat exchange plate pairs, the housing space exists between the adjacent heat exchange plate pairs, raw material gas comprising dimethyl oxalate and hydrogen enters the reactor, then passes through the housing space, and reacts through the catalyst catalysis to produce ethylene glycol, the cooling fluid passes through the plate space, and the heat released by the reaction is taken away. Compared with the reactor in the prior art, the reactor of the present invention has advantages of flexible structure adjustment, high heat exchange efficiency, good reaction selectivity, on site assembly, and the like.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a process for producing ethylene glycol from synthesis gas, in particular to a novel hydrogenation reactor with high efficiency for the process of producing ethylene glycol from synthesis gas. Background technique [0002] At present, in the process of producing ethylene glycol, the process of producing ethylene glycol (EG) from syngas through dimethyl oxalate (DMO) has strong competitiveness. DMO hydrogenation is a series reaction. First, DMO is hydrogenated to generate intermediate product methyl glycolate (MG), MG is rehydrogenated to generate EG, and EG is excessively hydrogenated to generate by-products such as ethanol and 1,2-butanediol. At the same time There are many other side effects. Therefore, the DMO hydrogenation reaction is extremely sensitive to temperature, and even a small temperature deviation will have a huge impact on the conversion rate of raw materials and product composition. DMO hydrogenation reaction...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0003] The existing shell-and-tube DMO hydrogenation reactor has the following problems: the heat transfer coefficient of the tubes is not high, more heat exchange area is required, and the reactor volume is relatively large; the catalyst is packed in the tubes, usually in a reactor. There are thousands or tens of thousands of tubes, the workload of catalyst loading and unloading is large, and the leak detection and maintenance are relatively complicated; when increasing the output of a single equipment, the tube-and-tube reactor often faces large pressure drop, high hot spot temperature, and excessive volume. question

[0004] Chinese patent ZL 201210407137.X discloses an industrial plate reactor for the hydrogenation of oxalate to ethylene glycol, the reactor is a radial reactor, and the heat exchange device of the reactor is a prefabricated group Heat exchange plates and cold tubes can overcome the shortcomings of tubular reactors such as small catalyst loading, large pressure drop, and large-scale production.

However, the reactor has the following disadvantages: the reactor is radial, the internal distribution pipe and the header are arranged, and the heat exchange component is a heat exchange plate and a cold pipe. Compared with the conventional reactor, the volume of the reactor is larger; the side of the heat exchange plate in the reactor in contact with the catalyst is a parallel plate-fin structure, and the distance between the plate-fin is 0.1-0.5mm, and the catalyst particles are described in the literature. The size is 3.2~5.5×3.2~5.5mm. Obviously, the catalyst cannot be packed between the plates and fins, and the reaction gas can easily pass between the plates and fins, resulting in a short circuit of the reaction gas, and the overall thermal resistance of the plates and plate fins is improved. Decrease, the heat of the catalyst bed will accumulate, the reaction conversion will decrease, and the life of the catalyst will be shortened; Under the design pressure of about 40 kg in the hydrogen reaction, the wall of the cold pipe will be very thick, and the cost of equipment manufacturing will increase; there are many equipment structures, the work of leak detection and maintenance is complicated, and the loading and unloading of the catalyst is inconvenient

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