Design of Diphenyl Carbonate Process via Reactive Distillation Configuration

Abstract

This study designed a process for synthesizing diphenyl carbonate (DPC) by using diethyl carbonate (DEC) through reactive distillation (RD). DPC is commercially produced using phosgene, which is highly toxic. Transesterification is a possible alternative for producing DPC by DEC. In this study, two types of reactant excess designs for RD configurations were investigated for obtaining the minimum total annual cost (TAC). Furthermore, the NRTL (non-random two-liquid) model was used to for simulating the thermodynamic behaviours. The overall kinetic mechanism can be divided into two reversible reactions. The purity of DPC and the specification of ethyl acetate (EtAc) were set at 99.5 % for industrial applications. The optimal steady-state design was successfully investigating by applying two configurations. The TAC and energy requirement of excess phenyl acetate configuration were approximately 29.53 % and 9.57 % lower than those of the others.