PROCESS FOR CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF DIALKYL CARBONATE AND DIOL

摘要

A process comprising feeding continuously a cyclic carbonate and an aliphatic monohydric alcohol to a continuous multi-stage distillation column and forming (A) a dialkyl carbonate and (B) a diol, wherein a gaseous low boiling point mixture containing (A) is continuously withdrawn from the upper portion of the distillation column, while continuously withdrawing a liquid high boiling point mixture containing (B) from the lower portion of the distillation column, and a transesterification is carried out under a condition satisfying the following requirements (a) to (c): (a) 5 x 10<4> Pa or less in terms of the bottom pressure of the continuous multi-stage distillation column, (b) -20 DEG C to a temperature lower than 60 DEG C in terms of the bottom temperature of the continuous multi-stage distillation column, (c) 0.2 to 5.0 in terms of F-factor of the continuous multi-stage distillation column represented by the following formula (1): F-factor = ug ( rho g)<1/2> wherein ug represents a gas flow rate in the continuous multi-stage distillation column (m/s), and rho g represents a gas density in the continuous multi-stage distillation column (kg/m<3>).