Study on kinetics of catalytic hydration to ethylene glycol

The kinetics of catalytic hydration from ethylene oxide (EO) was experimentally studied under the reaction conditions of 45~75°C, concentration of NY catalyst 0.093 mol/L and the initial mass ratio of water and EO 6~10. The rate constants and pH value were determined. According to the experimental results, the mechanism of catalytic hydration was proposed, and the rate equation was obtained with parameters estimated by the method of Levenberg-Marquardt. The results showed that the rate equation was first order with respect to the concentration of EO, which the activation energy was 71113.8 J/mol and the pre-exponential constant was 3.05 × 10⁹ min^-1. Compared to the method of direct hydration from EO, NY catalyst could decrease the activity energy and increase the reaction rate.