Process for the recovery of monoethylene glycol

1. A process for recovering monoethylene glycol from a catalyst bleed stream, comprising the steps of:

a) combining the catalyst bleed stream, and optionally further bleed streams, with a heavies stream comprising at least 40 wt % diethylene glycol, to provide a combined stream;

b) optionally dehydrating the combined stream; and

c) providing the combined stream from step (a) or step (b) to a distillation column and removing from the distillation column a first stream comprising monoethylene glycol and a second stream comprising diethylene glycol.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst bleed stream and at least one further bleed stream are combined with the heavies stream and the at least one further bleed stream is a quench bleed stream and/or a glycol bleed stream.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the distillation column is a vacuum column with a pressure in the range of from 0.1 to 500 mbar.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the first stream comprises at least 95 wt % monoethylene glycol, based upon the weight of the first stream.

5. A process for manufacturing monoethylene glycol, wherein ethylene oxide is reacted in the presence of one or more homogeneous catalysts in a reaction zone, optionally via ethylene carbonate, to give monoethylene glycol; wherein the one or more homogeneous catalysts are separated from a glycol product stream and are returned to the reaction zone via a catalyst recycle stream; wherein a catalyst bleed stream comprising monoethylene glycol is taken from the catalyst recycle stream; and wherein monoethylene glycol is recovered from the catalyst bleed stream by a process which comprises the steps of:

a) combining the catalyst bleed stream, and optionally further bleed streams, with a heavies stream comprising at least 40 wt % diethylene glycol, to provide a combined stream;

b) optionally dehydrating the combined stream; and

c) providing the combined stream from step (a) or step (b) to a distillation column and removing from the distillation column a first stream comprising monoethylene glycol and a second stream comprising diethylene glycol.

6. The process of claim 5 wherein the monoethylene glycol is purified in a monoethylene glycol recycle column and wherein the heavies stream is the bottoms stream from the monoethylene glycol recycle column.

7. The process of claim 5 wherein a product stream comprising ethylene oxide, produced by the reaction of ethylene and oxygen in an ethylene oxide reactor, is provided to a quench section before it is supplied to an ethylene oxide absorber; wherein a quench bleed is withdrawn from the quench section and is subjected to hydrolysis, providing a hydrolysed quench bleed stream; and wherein the hydrolysed quench bleed stream is optionally concentrated or dehydrated and is combined with the catalyst bleed stream and the heavies stream.

8. The process of claim 5 wherein lean absorbent is supplied to an ethylene oxide absorber; wherein a glycol bleed stream is withdrawn from the lean absorbent; and wherein the glycol bleed stream is optionally concentrated or dehydrated and is combined with the catalyst bleed stream and the heavies stream.

9. The process of claim 5 wherein the distillation column is a vacuum column with a pressure in the range of from 0.1 to 500 mbar.

10. The process of claim 5 wherein the first stream comprises at least 95 wt % monoethylene glycol, based upon the weight of the first stream.