SCI和EI收录∣中国化工学会会刊

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering ›› 2019, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (8): 1879-1887.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2018.12.003

• Process Systems Engineering and Process Safety • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Process design and economic optimization for the indirect synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from urea and methanol

Feng Wang, Yanfeng Pu, Jinhai Yang, Taiying Wang, Languang Chen, Ning Zhao, Fukui Xiao   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China
  • Received:2018-08-22 Revised:2018-11-30 Online:2019-11-16 Published:2019-08-28
  • Contact: Ning Zhao, Fukui Xiao
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the Science Foundation for Young Scientists of Shanxi Province, China (201701D221052), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (201601D102006) and the Key Science and Technology Program of Shanxi Province, China (MD2014-09, MD2014-10).

Process design and economic optimization for the indirect synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from urea and methanol

Feng Wang, Yanfeng Pu, Jinhai Yang, Taiying Wang, Languang Chen, Ning Zhao, Fukui Xiao   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China
  • 通讯作者: Ning Zhao, Fukui Xiao
  • 基金资助:
    Supported by the Science Foundation for Young Scientists of Shanxi Province, China (201701D221052), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (201601D102006) and the Key Science and Technology Program of Shanxi Province, China (MD2014-09, MD2014-10).

Abstract: Much attention has been paid for the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) by urea indirect alcoholysis method, which had not been actually industrialized by now. The rigorous full process model was then necessary to optimize the process with heat integration. In this paper, a full process was designed and optimized for the DMC synthesis by urea indirect alcoholysis method based on Aspen Plus software. The technological analysis was developed to find how the process was influenced by the three main recycled materials of methanol, 1,2-propylene glycol (PG) and mixture of DMC-methanol. Simultaneously, the thermal optimization was taken into account for energy saving and the optimized process was proposed with heat integration. Moreover, the economic evaluation was implemented for the optimized process with total annualized cost (TAC) and cost of product (COP) according to the plant investment and operations. It was found that the 11.6% decrease in TAC was obtained for the optimized process compared to the original designed process. The COP analysis showed that the process was economically efficient for the production of DMC from urea and methanol.

Key words: Dimethyl carbonate, Process simulation, Transesterification, Urea

摘要: Much attention has been paid for the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) by urea indirect alcoholysis method, which had not been actually industrialized by now. The rigorous full process model was then necessary to optimize the process with heat integration. In this paper, a full process was designed and optimized for the DMC synthesis by urea indirect alcoholysis method based on Aspen Plus software. The technological analysis was developed to find how the process was influenced by the three main recycled materials of methanol, 1,2-propylene glycol (PG) and mixture of DMC-methanol. Simultaneously, the thermal optimization was taken into account for energy saving and the optimized process was proposed with heat integration. Moreover, the economic evaluation was implemented for the optimized process with total annualized cost (TAC) and cost of product (COP) according to the plant investment and operations. It was found that the 11.6% decrease in TAC was obtained for the optimized process compared to the original designed process. The COP analysis showed that the process was economically efficient for the production of DMC from urea and methanol.

关键词: Dimethyl carbonate, Process simulation, Transesterification, Urea