Chinese Firm To Make Ethylene Glycol

Japanese firms Ube Industries and HighChem have licensed their process to make ethylene glycol from synthesis gas to the Chinese company Qianxixian Qianxi Coal Chemical. Using the technology, Qianxi­xian intends to build a 300,000-metric-ton-per-year ethylene glycol plant to start up in early 2013 in Guizhou, a poor southern China province endowed with large coal reserves. The Japanese firms’ process uses a palladium catalyst to produce dimethyl oxalate from coal-derived syngas. The DMO is then reduced to ethylene glycol. HighChem has already demonstrated the technology at a pilot plant in China.