The invention relates to a method, a process and an apparatus for separation of
ethylene glycol and 1,2-
butanediol. The method includes, (1) subjecting
ethylene glycol and 1,2-
butanediol to reaction through
acetal / ketal to produce
acetal / ketal
liquid product mixture correspondingly, (2) separating the
acetal / ketal
liquid product mixture containing
ethylene glycol and 1,2-
butanediol by a series of rectifying columns, (3) separating different acetal / ketal products by rectifying according to difference of boiling points of acetal or ketal, (4) respectively hydrolyzing the acetal / ketal products to obtain an
ethylene glycol primary product and a 1,2-butanediol primary product, and (5) purifying the
ethylene glycol primary product and the 1,2-butanediol primary product respectively by rectifying to obtain an
ethylene glycol product and a 1,2-butanediol product. The purity of the ethylene glycol product can be up to 99.9% and the
recovery thereof can be up to 99.5%; the purity of the 1,2-butanediol product can be up to 98.5%. By a reversible-reaction
conversion method, the difficulty in separating ethylene glycol and 1,2-butanediol which are of similar boiling points and low
relative volatility and are azeotropic is changed into the problem about separation of acetal / ketal products which are easy to separate relatively.