| abstract |
Processes and systems for purifying ethylene oxide, including introducing a feed stream (106) including ethylene oxide to a heat exchanger (102) to heat the feed stream, feeding the heated feed stream to a distillation apparatus (104) base below a first stage, removing from the distillation apparatus an impurity fraction as a top exit stream (116) from the distillation apparatus (104) located at a top take-off on the distillation apparatus (104), removing from the distillation apparatus (104) an ethylene oxide stream (112) of 99.7 weight percent purity, based on the total weight of the ethylene oxide stream, from the distillation apparatus, and removing from the distillation apparatus (104) an aldehyde enriched fraction as a bottom stream (122) from the distillation apparatus (104), where the aldehyde enriched fraction is fed directly to a glycol reactor (123). |