Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova ADVERTIMENT. L'accés als continguts d'aquesta tesi doctoral i la seva utilització ha de respectar els drets de la persona autora. Pot ser utilitzada per a consulta o estudi personal, així com en activitats o materials d'investigació i docència en els termes establerts a l'art. 32 del Text Refós de la Llei de Propietat Intel·lectual (RDL 1/1996). Per altres utilitzacions es requereix l'autorització prèvia i expressa de la persona autora. En qualsevol cas, en la utilització dels seus continguts caldrà indicar de forma clara el nom i cognoms de la persona autora i el títol de la tesi doctoral. No s'autoritza la seva reproducció o altres formes d'explotació efectuades amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva comunicació pública des d'un lloc aliè al servei TDX. Tampoc s'autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant als continguts de la tesi com als seus resums i índexs. ADVERTENCIA. El acceso a los contenidos de esta tesis doctoral y su utilización debe respetar los derechos de la persona autora. Puede ser utilizada para consulta o estudio personal, así como en actividades o materiales de investigación y docencia en los términos establecidos en el art. 32 del Texto Refundido de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual (RDL 1/1996). Para otros usos se requiere la autorización previa y expresa de la persona autora. En cualquier caso, en la utilización de sus contenidos se deberá indicar de forma clara el nombre y apellidos de la persona autora y el título de la tesis doctoral. No se autoriza su reproducción u otras formas de explotación efectuadas con fines lucrativos ni su comunicación pública desde un sitio ajeno al servicio TDR. Tampoco se autoriza la presentación de su contenido en una ventana o marco ajeno a TDR (framing). Esta reserva de derechos afecta tanto al contenido de la tesis como a sus resúmenes e índices. WARNING. Access to the contents of this doctoral thesis and its use must respect the rights of the author. It can be used for reference or private study, as well as research and learning activities or materials in the terms established by the 32nd article of the Spanish Consolidated Copyright Act (RDL 1/1996). Express and previous authorization of the author is required for any other uses. In any case, when using its content, full name of the author and title of the thesis must be clearly indicated. Reproduction or other forms of for profit use or public communication from outside TDX service is not allowed. Presentation of its content in a window or frame external to TDX (framing) is not authorized either. These rights affect both the content of the thesis and its abstracts and indexes. UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova Ra�onal and Sta�s�cal Approaches in Enhancing Yield of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterifica�on with Ethylene Glycol UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA IVIRGILI DINA FAKHRNASOVA Doctoral Thesis 2016 UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova DOCTORAL THESIS Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol DINA FAKHRNASOVA Supervised by: Dr. Atsushi Urakawa ICIQ‐URV Dr. Ricardo J. Chimentão URV Prof. Francisco Medina URV Tarragona 2016 UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova I STATE that the present study, entitled “Rational and statistical approaches in enhancing yield of ethylene carbonate in urea transesterification with ethylene glycol”, presented by Dina Fakhrnasova for the award of the degree of Doctor, has been carried out under my supervision at the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) of this university and at the group of Dr. Urakawa of ICIQ. Tarragona, 11th January 2016 Doctoral Thesis Supervisors Dr. Atsushi Urakawa Dr. Ricardo J. Chimentão Prof. Francisco Medina UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova Acknowledgement First of all I would like to acknowledge my main thesis supervisor, Prof. Francisco Medina, for the opportunity to join his research group CATHETER where I made my first steps in doctoral study. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the former CATHETER member Dr. Ricardo Chimentão accompanying and guiding me in my research journey. I am deeply grateful for his support and care not only in my professional but also in the personal life. The greatest acknowledge I would like to express to Dr. Atsushi Urakawa who gave me opportunity to continue my doctoral study in collaboration with his research group in ICIQ and has been supervising me by providing research guidance over four years. I will always remain thankful for his immense support, motivation, demanding a high quality of work in all my endeavours, expert knowledge and patience. Without his supervision and constant help this thesis work would not have been possible. I am very grateful to all the scientific and non-scientific staff from ICIQ for facilitating my research work. I am indebted to members of Chemical Reaction Technologies Unit and especially to Dr. Marta Giménez for her support and help with very sensitive and sometimes naughty equipment that I was dealing with. I am also thankful to Dr. Miguel Gonzalez from Heterogeneous Catalysis Unit for his expertise and help with analytical equipment of his lab. I would like to acknowledge Jose Luis Leon from the Mechanical Workshop for making my research experiments happen. Special thanks to Aurora for her assistance in administrative tasks during my stay and visits of Tarragona. I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of CATHETER group who welcomed me and greatly supported my initial stage of doctoral study. I am sincerely grateful to people in Urakawa research group, who created UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova incredible atmosphere in the lab and made me believe that research can be fun. Greatest thanks to pioneers of the group: Atul, Antonio and Jordi. Thank you for taking care of your “little sister”, helping to survive in the lab and making me smile in tough situations. I am also very grateful to colleagues who joined the group later: Dragos, Sergio, Rohit, Marta, Muralidhar, Yi, Andrea and many other former members and visiting students. Thanks to your assistance and friendship I will always keep warm memories of my PhD life. I must thank my friends from Russian community in Tarragona: Andrei, Sasha, Maria, Evgeny and many others for their priceless support and encouragement during my PhD time. Thanks for believing in me and for unforgettable times in Tarragona. Me gustaría agradecer a mis amigos de En Dantza y la escuela de idiomas por acompañarme en mi vida social aparte del doctrorado. Ich bedanke mich bei meinen Kollegen von Dow für die Unterstützung und der Hilfe bei meiner Dissertation. Отдельные слова благодарности моим русскоговорящим друзьям во всех уголках мира за поддержку и мотивацию, а так же моим родителям и брату за веру в меня. I would like to acknowledge ICIQ and URV for supporting this doctoral work in the form of ICIQ-URV fellowship and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for financial support (CTQ2012-34153) and support through Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation 2014-2018 (SEV-2013-0319). UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Rational and Statistical Approaches in Enhancing Yield Of Ethylene Carbonate in Urea Transesterification with Ethylene Glycol Dina Fakhrnasova Table of Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Linear and cyclic organic carbonates ........................................................... 2 1.1.1 DMC – highly demanded linear organic carbonate ............................ 2 1.1.2 Cyclic carbonates: A building block for DMC production ................... 4 1.2 Transesterification of urea with EG: State of the art ..................................... 8 1.2.1 Reaction products and pathway ........................................................ 8 1.2.2 Reaction conditions ........................................................................... 9 1.2.2.1 Time .................................................................................... 10 1.2.2.2 Temperature ........................................................................ 10 1.2.2.3 Pressure .............................................................................. 10 1.2.2.4 Feed composition and catalyst loading ............................... 11 1.2.3 Catalysts