Ethylene glycol how is it made

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Issue 3, The route towards sustainable production of ethylene glycol from a renewable resource, biodiesel waste: a review. You have access to this article. Ethylene glycol is a clear, viscous liquid primarily used in industrial manufacturing applications, and also is an ingredient in products like automotive antifreeze and coolant.

Ethylene glycol is produced by reacting the chemical compound ethylene oxide with water. The primary use of ethylene glycol is for polyethylene terephthalate PET plastic resin used to make beverage containers for soda, water and juice, and polyester fiber for clothes, upholstery, carpet, and pillows.

Ethylene glycol has a variety of other industrial uses, including:. Ethylene glycol is a major component of deicing solutions used in a variety of transportation applications, including cars, boats and aircraft, as well as on airport runways during the cold winter months.

Ethylene glycol also is an ingredient in hydraulic brake fluid products. A person could be exposed to ethylene glycol through skin contact when using automobile antifreeze. According to the U. Operating costs are also reduced as it uses much less water lowering utility and water treatment costs. This new MEG technology is a complete departure from the conventional ethylene based route.

It was first reported in by Adolphe Wurtz image, right , who was an Alsatian French chemist. Very far from it. He was a great proponent of atomic theory. Anyway, back to glycol. He reacted 1,2-diiodoethane indirectly derived from ethene in an esterification reaction with silver ethanoate acetate in what is also a nucleophilic substitution reaction.

The resulting ester was then hydrolysed with potassium hydroxide. Nowadays commercial manufacture tends to use processes involving the hydration of ethylene oxide, a readily available chemical made from ethene, in turn obtained by cracking alkanes. This process goes back to a discovery that Wurtz reported in Yes, it is used as one of the two starting materials used in the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate PET, a. The diacid terephthalic acid benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid reacts with the diol ethylene glycol forming the polyester.

This has many uses, one being to make plastic soft-drink bottles which may be used to incorrectly store antifreeze. Others include insulation and wrapping; ropes; carpets and clothing. Over 20 million metric tonnes of ethylene glycol are manufactured each year. It can be converted into several other useful chemicals, like glyoxal, glycolic acid and methyl glycolate, and other uses continue to develop, including the synthesis of nanomaterials.

In the liver, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase converts ethylene glycol first into glycoaldehyde and then into other toxic molecules. Ultimately oxalic acid removes calcium from the body as insoluble calcium oxalate, which is deposited in the kidneys and damages them, leading to renal failure.

Methanoic formic acid is also generated, which can cause blindness. Because antifreeze is such an everyday chemical, some people get careless with it around the home.