Kinetic study on the one-pot synthesis of dimethyl carbonate in supercritical CO2 conditions

Hongyou Cui, Tao Wang*, Fujun Wang, Chaoran Gu, Peilin Wang, Youyuan Dai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The kinetics of one-pot synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) was investigated using ethylene epoxide (EO), methanol, and CO2 as raw materials and a mixture of KI and K2CO3 as a catalyst under supercritical CO2 conditions. The reaction pathway of the one-pot process is that EO first reacts with CO2 to form ethylene carbonate (EC) and then EC reacts with methanol to produce DMC and ethylene glycol (EG). EC formation is a relatively fast reaction, whereas the transesterification of EC with methanol to form DMC is a relatively slow reaction and the rate-control step of the one-pot synthesis. 2-Methoxyethanol (ME), which is the exclusive byproduct, is predominantly formed by the reaction of EC with methanol. An isothermal kinetics model and an isobaric kinetics model for the one-pot synthesis of DMC were developed. The relative standard deviations of the models from the experiment data were less than ±15% and ±10%, respectively. The effects of temperature and CO2 density on the reaction rates and selectivity were discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7732-7739
Number of pages8
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume43
Issue number24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Nov 2004
Externally publishedYes

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