The industrial capacity of ethanol oxide around the globe is found within the petrochemical industry belt, United States Gulf Coast accounted for 38% of ethanol oxide manufacturing capacity in the world, Dow Chemical Louisiana factory ethylene oxidation procedure, one ethylene oxidation unit yearly capability of 650,000 tons, 92.5% of ethylene transformation effectiveness, over 14,000 hours catalyst lifespan. By utilizing coal chemical industry strengths, China will add 1.2 million tons of new capacity in 2023, and Sinopec Zhenhai Base employs the domestically developed YS-9030 silver catalyst, which selectively increases to 88.2%, and unit energy consumption decreases to 1.8 tons of standard coal/ton of products, saving 19% more energy than the original process. The current Sadara Phase II project in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, will yield 500,000 tons of ethanol oxide per year, and the auxiliary EO/EG integration device can raise the raw material utilization rate to 99.3%. The project’s investment is 2.3 billion US dollars, and the production capacity in the Middle East is expected to increase from 17% to 24% after the 2026 production.
The German chemical cluster is in the high-end sector through process intensification, and the BASF Ludwigshafen plant’s line for producing ethanol oxide derivatives utilizes micro-channel reactor technology to accelerate the ethylene oxide hydration reaction time from 90 minutes to 22 seconds, reduce the catalyst load by 43%, and deliver a 99.995% purity product. Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical launched a new generation of membrane separation device in 2024, controlling the fluctuation of ethylene concentration in circulating gas at ±0.15%, promoting the operating stability of the device to 99.8% availability, and reducing the annual failure downtime to 4.7 hours. Reliance’s newly commissioned Gujarat, India-based EO-PEG joint venture plant reduces steam consumption from 4.2 tons/t of product to 2.8 tons through the design of thermal coupling, reducing carbon emissions by 120,000 tons per year and is ISO 50001 certified energy management system.
Local manufacturing is seriously inhibited by raw material availability, the Siberia, Russia, ethanol oxide plant capacity utilization rate in 2023 is merely 78%, and equipment idle cost is 12.6/min, while the bio-based ethylene path followed by Brazil’s Braskem to reduce the carbon intensity per ton of ethanoloxide from petroleum-based 62150 green incentives to remain competitive. Southeast Asian market is characterized by fragmentation. Thailand’s $250 million Rayong Province expansion of PTTGC plant is equipped with 32 special tanks of storage (2.3MPa working pressure, 800m³ capacity), and regional transportation and storage capacity reaches 450,000 tons/year, satisfying 37% of ASEAN nations’ demand deficiency.