Metal-organic frameworks MOF-808-X as highly efficient catalysts for direct synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from CO_2 and methanol

A series of metal-organic frameworks MOF-808-X(6-connected)were synthesized by regulating the ZrOCl2·8H2O/1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid(BTC)molar ratio(X)and tested for the direct synthesis of dimethyl carbonate(DMC)from CO2 and CH3OH with 1,1,1-trimethoxymethane(TMM)as a dehydrating agent.The effect of the ZrOCl2·8H2O/BTC molar ratio on the physicochemical properties and catalytic performance of MOF-808-X was investigated.Results showed that a proper ZrOCl2·8H2O/BTC molar ratio during MOF-808-X synthesis was fairly important to reduce the redundant BTC or zirconium clusters trapped in the micropores of MOF-808-X.MOF-808-4,with almost no redundant BTC or zirconium clusters trapped in the micropores,exhibited the largest surface area,micropore size,and the number of acidic-basic sites,and consequently showed the best activity among all MOF-808-X,with the highest DMC yield of 21.5% under the optimal reaction conditions.Moreover,benefiting from the larger micropore size,MOF-808-4 outperformed our previously reported UiO-66-24(12-connected),which had even more acidic-basic sites and larger surface area than MOF-808-4,mainly because the larger micropore size of MOF-808-4 provided higher accessibility for the reactant to the active sites located in the micropores.Furthermore,a possible reaction mechanism over MOF-808-4 was proposed based on the in situ FT-IR results.The effects of different reaction parameters on DMC formation and the reusability of MOF-808-X were also studied.

Process design and economic optimization for the indirect synthesis of dimethyl carbonate from urea and methanol

Much attention has been paid for the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate(DMC) by urea indirect alcoholysis method, which had not been actually industrialized by now. The rigorous full process model was then necessary to optimize the process with heat integration. In this paper, a full process was designed and optimized for the DMC synthesis by urea indirect alcoholysis method based on Aspen Plus software.The technological analysis was developed to find how the process was influenced by the three main recycled materials of methanol, 1,2-propylene glycol(PG) and mixture of DMC–methanol. Simultaneously,the thermal optimization was taken into account for energy saving and the optimized process was proposed with heat integration. Moreover, the economic evaluation was implemented for the optimized process with total annualized cost(TAC) and cost of product(COP) according to the plant investment and operations. It was found that the 11.6% decrease in TAC was obtained for the optimized process compared to the original designed process. The COP analysis showed that the process was economically efficient for the production of DMC from urea and methanol.