Why are the prices of monoethanolamine and triethanolamine so different?
Analysis of the reasons for the price difference between monoethanolamine and triethanolamine
Monoethanolamine and triethanolamine are expensive, and the root cause can be attributed to one sentence: monoethanolamine is a "one-step" product, while triethanolamine is a "multi-step" product that requires "purification".
Different synthesis routes
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Monoethanolamine : Directly reacted by ethylene oxide with excess ammonia , high yield can be obtained by controlling the feeding ratio, The reaction path is short and the conversion rate is high .
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Triethanolamine : An excess of ethylene oxide is required, and the reaction product is a mixture of monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, and triethanolamine . By further reacting monoethanolamine and diethanolamine with ethylene oxide, the overall reaction takes longer and consumes more energy .
The difficulty of separation and purification varies greatly
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Monoethanolamine: can be efficiently separated by ordinary distillation , and the purification cost of is very low.
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Triethanolamine : Triethanolamine itself has high viscosity, easy water absorption, and high heat sensitivity . It requires multi-stage high vacuum distillation to separate and purify. This process has large equipment investment, extremely high energy consumption, and is difficult to operate , resulting in a straight increase in production costs.
Product yield
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Monoethanolamine : It can mainly produce monoethanolamine by adjusting the ratio of ammonia to ethylene oxide. High yield and stable supply.
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Triethanolamine : Usually the joint product for the production of monoethanolamine or diethanolamine. The production of triethanolamine not only has a longer reaction time , but also generates a large number of other ethanolamines at the same time. In addition, the application field of high-purity triethanolamine has extremely strict requirements for impurities , which further drives up the cost of refining.
