{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,19]],"date-time":"2025-12-19T15:43:47Z","timestamp":1766159027533,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]],"date-time":"2022-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665273600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["U20A20152"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U20A20152"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Dimethyl carbonate is an important green chemical that has been widely used in the chemical industry. In the production of dimethyl carbonate, methanol oxidative carbonylation has been studied, but the conversion ratio of dimethyl carbonate using this method is too low, and the subsequent separation requires a large amount of energy due to methanol and dimethyl carbonate being azeotrope. In this paper, the strategy of \u201creaction instead of separation\u201d is proposed. Based on this strategy, a novel process is developed to combine the production of DMC with that of dimethoxymethane (DMM) and dimethyl ether (DME). The co-production process was simulated using Aspen Plus software, and the product purity was up to 99.9%. The exergy analysis of the co-production process and the existing process was carried out. The exergy destruction and exergy efficiency were compared with those of the existing production processes. The results show that the exergy destruction of the co-production process is about 276% less than that of the single-production processes, and the exergy efficiencies in the developed co-production process are significantly improved. The utility loads of the co-production process are significantly lower than that of the single-production process. The developed co-production process increases the methanol conversion ratio to 95%, with a reduced energy requirement. It is proved that the developed co-production process can provide an advantageous option over the existing processes with improved energy efficiency and material savings. The strategy of \u201creaction instead of separation\u201d is feasible. A new strategy is proposed for azeotrope separation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e24101438","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]],"date-time":"2022-10-09T20:49:31Z","timestamp":1665348571000},"page":"1438","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Co-Production of Dimethyl Carbonate, Dimethoxymethane and Dimethyl Ether from Methanol: Process Design and Exergy Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Shuxing","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiaoshu","family":"Ding","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Helen","family":"Shang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bharti School of Engineering, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yucong","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanji","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.1021\/ef9600974","article-title":"Review of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) manufacture and its characteristics as a fuel additive","volume":"11","author":"Pacheco","year":"1997","journal-title":"Energy Fuels"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"221","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cej.2013.11.079","article-title":"Highly efficient catalyst PdCl2\u2013CuCl2\u2013KOAc\/AC@ Al2O3 for gas-phase oxidative carbonylation of methanol to dimethyl carbonate: Preparation and reaction mechanism","volume":"240","author":"Ding","year":"2014","journal-title":"Chem. 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