Research Progress of the Production of Chelating Agents

This paper overviews the variety of chelating agents and their main use in different industries.Together with an outline of the existing main chelating agents,this paper makes a study on the production process of some conventional chelating agents including ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid(EDTA),diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid(DTPA),nitrilotriacetic acid(NTA) and hydroxyethyl ethylene diamine triacetic acid(HEDTA).By making an introduction of the new chelating agents that are degradable and eco-friendly,this paper highlights on the production process of glutamate N-N-diacetic acid(GLDA) and glucoheptonate acid(glucoheptonate) as well as their outstanding advantages;A preview on the trend of the chelating agents' development is made at the end.