Innovative Design of Diphenyl Carbonate Process via One Reactive Distillation with a Feed-Splitting Arrangement

Abstract

This paper proposes an innovative design for diphenyl carbonate (DPC) synthesis using dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and phenyl acetate (PA) as reactants. DPC synthesis is an environmentally-friendly method for polycarbonate production and avoids the use of highly toxic phosgene. DPC production is a two-step and reversible reaction. An ideal model was established to simulate the thermodynamic behaviour. Kinetic parameters were chosen by the previous paper. The excess reactant design was used for the reaction mechanism in their research, and a thermal coupling arrangement was implemented to improve the conventional process design. However, this paper proposes an even newer design, delivering an equivalent performance with lower operating costs and energy requirements. The specifications for the product DPC and by-product methyl acetate (MA) were set as 99.5 mol % for industrial usage, and the optimal configuration of the DPC process was determined according to the minimum total annual cost (TAC). Compared with the results determined by Cheng et al. (2013), the proposed design reduced energy consumption by 59.54 % for condenser duty and by 71.07 % for reboiler duty, resulting in a 57.99 % lower TAC.