Experimental and Kinetic Studies on a Homogeneous System for Diethyl Carbonate Synthesis by Transesterification

A synthesis of diethyl carbonate through transesterification of propylene carbonate and ethanol, coproducing useful propylene glycol, was carried out in the presence of sodium ethoxide as catalyst. The effects of reaction parameters such as catalyst concentration, mole ratio of ethanol to propylene carbonate and reaction temperature on the transesterfication reaction were investigated. The results showed that the reaction is reversible with a propylene carbonate equilibrium conversion of about 64?% at an ethanol to propylene carbonate mole ratio of 8.0 and a reaction temperature of 303?K. A kinetic model was proposed based on the reaction mechanism. The model parameters were estimated by the Runge-Kutta method. The statistical test showed that the model calculation results were in good agreement with the experimental data.