Carbon dioxide utilization in propylene carbonate production process

Abstract

Utilizing carbon dioxide in chemical processes is one of the suggested remedies for reducing its atmospheric concentration. In this paper, the simulation of the propylene carbonate production process using 1,2-propanediol and carbon dioxide has been performed. The impact of temperature was examined between 75 and 400°C. It has been found that as temperature rises, reaction conversion increases. Additionally, the impact of recycling ratio was examined in the range of 0.1–0.5, which demonstrates that a rise in the recycle ratio results in a fall in conversion. Furthermore; it was observed that the pressure initially increases the solubility of carbon dioxide in 1,2-propanediol and improves the conversion of the reaction, but when enough carbon dioxide is supplied in the reaction, increasing the pressure does not affect the corresponding reaction. The effect of all studied parameters depends on the residence time of the reactants in the reactor. Investigating the interaction of parameters and optimizing the process has shown several optimal point of the process such as temperature of 295 °C, a recycle ratio 0.1, feed ratio 0.8 and a residence time of 12.61 h, with the related conversion being 59.6%.