The alkoxycarbonylation reaction can be realized in continuous flow under supercritical conditions by utilizing CO₂ as a feedstock instead of CO. Conventionally, the synthesis of the methyl propionate is achieved in the first step of the Lucite Alpha process through the hydroesterification of ethylene with methanol and carbon monoxide. In this paper, synthesis of the methyl propionate process by replacing the carbon monoxide feedstock with CO₂ and using a more robust and less expensive catalyst is simulated and evaluated from the perspective of environmental influence. A life cycle assessment was done of the methyl propionate production via the supercritical process utilizing CO₂ as feedstock. For all nine impact categories – AP, GWP, EP, FAETP, HTP, Land use, MAETP, ODP and CED –, the novel process was compared to the performance of the existing state-of-the-art carbon monoxide-based process, the Lucite Alpha process. An 80% impact reduction was found for both the Global Warming Potential and the Ozone Depletion Potential. The major contribution to the impact reduction stems from the change from CO to CO₂ as a feedstock, since the impact from CO as feedstock is strongly negative while the impact from CO₂ as feedstock is strongly positive. Yet, also the supercritical conditions themselves show a notable environmental benefit, besides providing the enabling function for the new chemistry. A remarkable effect on steam, electricity, and cooling energy is given. The higher pressure required for the supercritical CO₂ process was found to have minimal effect on the electricity use for compression.

中文翻译：

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使用二氧化碳原料的新型超临界丙酸甲酯工艺的生命周期评估

可以通过使用CO ₂代替CO作为原料在超临界条件下以连续流动的方式实现烷氧羰基化反应。传统上，丙酸甲酯的合成是在Lucite Alpha工艺的第一步中，通过乙烯与甲醇和甲醇的加氢酯化反应完成的。一氧化碳。在本文中，从环境影响的角度模拟和评估了丙酸甲酯工艺的合成，该工艺通过用CO ₂代替一氧化碳原料并使用更耐用，更便宜的催化剂来进行。通过使用CO ₂的超临界过程对丙酸甲酯的生产进行了生命周期评估作为原料。对于所有九种影响类别（AP，GWP，EP，FAETP，HTP，土地使用，MAETP，ODP和CED），将新流程与现有最先进的基于一氧化碳的流程的性能进行了比较， Lucite Alpha过程。发现全球变暖潜能值和臭氧消耗潜能值均降低了80％。对减少影响的主要贡献来自于将CO转变为CO ₂作为原料，因为CO作为原料的影响强烈为负，而CO ₂的影响为负。因为原料是积极的。然而，超临界条件本身除了为新化学提供使能功能外，还显示出显着的环境效益。对蒸汽，电力和冷却能产生了显着影响。发现超临界CO ₂工艺所需的较高压力对压缩用电的影响最小。