Ethylene oxide is a raw material that is used industrially for making many consumer products as well as non-consumer chemicals and intermediates. Ethylene oxide is important or critical to the production of detergents, thickeners, solvents, plastics, and various organic chemicals such as ethylene glycol, ethanol amines, simple and complex glycols, polyglycol ethers and other compounds. Ethylene oxide can be produced by reacting oxygen (O2) and ethylene (C2H4) at temperatures of 200 – 300°C and pressures of 10 – 20 bara. The typical yield of this reaction is up to 80 – 90%.
The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is the main industrial procedure for the production of ammonia today. The process converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen (H2) using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures: N2 + 3 H2 → 2 NH3.
This conversion is typically conducted at 150 – 250 bara and between 400 – 500 °C as the gases are passed over four beds of catalysts, with cooling between each pass in order to maintain a reasonable equilibrium constant. On each pass the conversion rate is ~15%, but any unreacted gases are recycled, and eventually an overall conversion yield of 97% can be reached.