Comparative techno-economic analysis of oil-based and coal-based ethylene glycol processes

Traditional ethylene glycol production is heavily dependent on oil. In the background of richness of coal and scarcity of oil, more and more coal to ethylene glycol (CTEG) plants have been successfully operated to relieve the shortage of ethylene glycol in China. Thus, it is an urgent work to answer the following question: between oil-based and coal-based ethylene glycol routes, which is the better choice? A comparative techno-economic analysis of oil-based and coal-based ethylene glycol processes is conducted to identify the opportunities and challenges of CTEG industry. Results show that CTEG process has prominent advantage in total production cost, which is about 16% lower than that of oil to ethylene glycol (OTEG) process. However, it is criticized by many shortcomings, such as higher energy consumption, lower exergy efficiency, higher total capital investment, and higher CO2 emissions compared with OTEG process. Facing with these restrictive problems of CTEG process, several possible measures are proposed to improve the technoeconomic performance. In addition, the effects of several key economic parameters on the competitiveness of OTEG and CTEG processes are investigated and compared. Results show that the development of CTEG industry has a cost advantage and is promising due to the abundant reserve and low-price of coal in China. However, it should reduce the energy consumption and emissions before the large-scale development of CTEG industry.