Water → Propylene Glycol

Participants

Reaction Steps

The epoxidation step of the process produces a product stream comprising propylene, propylene oxide, propylene glycol, tertiary butyl alcohol, and water. The product stream components are purified by a distillation process comprising three steps. The product stream may contain some residual hydrogen peroxide from the epoxidation reaction, however, if present, the residual hydrogen peroxide will decompose to water during the distillation steps. First, the product stream is distilled to produce a first overhead stream comprising propylene and a first bottoms stream comprising propylene oxide, propylene glycol, tertiary butyl alcohol, and water. In the first distillation, preferably at least 98% of the propylene (more preferably, at least 99.5%) is taken overhead.

Provenance & Evidence