Process for industrially producing dialkyl carbonate and diol

1. A process for industrially producing a dialkyl carbonate and a diol in which the dialkyl carbonate and the diol are continuously produced through a reactive distillation system of taking a cyclic carbonate and an aliphatic monohydric alcohol as starting materials, comprising the steps of:

continuously feeding the starting materials into a continuous multi-stage distillation column in which a catalyst is present;

carrying out reaction and distillation simultaneously in said column;

continuously withdrawing a low boiling point reaction mixture containing the produced dialkyl carbonate from an upper portion of the column in a gaseous form; and

continuously withdrawing a high boiling point reaction mixture containing the diol from a lower portion of the column in a liquid form, wherein

(a) said continuous multi-stage distillation column comprises a structure having a cylindrical trunk portion having a length L (cm) and an inside diameter D (cm) and having thereinside an internal with a number of stages n, and comprises a gas outlet having an inside diameter d 1 (cm) at a top of the column or in the upper portion of the column near to the top, a liquid outlet having an inside diameter d 2 (cm) at a bottom of the column or in the lower portion of the column near to the bottom, at least one first inlet provided in the upper portion and/or a middle portion of the column below the gas outlet, and at least one second inlet provided in the middle portion and/or the lower portion of the column above the liquid outlet, wherein

(1) the length L (cm) satisfies the formula (1);

2100 ≦L≦ 8000  (1),

(2) the inside diameter D (cm) of the column satisfies the formula (2);

180 ≦D≦ 2000  (2),

(3) a ratio of the length L (cm) to the inside diameter D (cm) of the column satisfies the formula (3);

4 ≦/D≦ 40  (3),

(4) the number of stages n satisfies the formula (4);

10 ≦n≦ 120  (4),

(5) a ratio of the inside diameter D (cm) of the column to the inside diameter d 1 (cm) of the gas outlet satisfies the formula (5);

3 ≦D/d 1 ≦20  (5), and

(6) a ratio of the inside diameter D (cm) of the column to the inside diameter d 2 (cm) of the liquid outlet satisfies the formula (6);

5≦ D/d 2 ≦30  (6).

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said d 1 and said d 2 satisfy the formula (7);

1 ≦d 1 /d 2 ≦5  (7).

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein L, D, L/D, n, D/d 1 , and D/d 2 for said continuous multi-stage distillation column satisfy the following formulae; 2300≦L≦6000, 200≦D≦1000, 5≦L/D≦30, 30≦n≦100, 4≦D/d 1 ≦15, and 7≦D/d 2 ≦25, respectively.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein L, D, L/D, n, D/d 1 , and D/d 2 for said continuous multi-stage distillation column satisfy the following formulae; 2500≦L≦5000, 210≦D≦800, 7≦L/D≦20, 40≦n≦90, 5≦D/d 1 ≦13, and 9≦D/d 2 ≦20, respectively.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said continuous multi-stage distillation column is a distillation column having a tray and/or packing as said internal.

6. The process according to claim 5 , wherein said continuous multi-stage distillation column is a plate-type distillation column having a tray as said internal.

7. The process according to claim 5 or 6 , wherein said tray is a sieve tray having a sieve portion and a downcomer portion.

8. The process according to claim 7 , wherein the sieve trays has 100 to 1000 holes/m 2 in the sieve portion thereof.

9. The process according to claim 7 , wherein a cross-sectional area per hole of the sieve tray is in a range of from 0.5 to 5 cm 2 .