What are the heights of the crude distillation column, atmospheric pressure column, and pressurized column for dimethyl carbonate in the transesterification process? Useful for project feasibility studies!

Dimethyl carbonate – it’s a name that sounds quite familiar when you see it. As early as eight or nine years ago, there was a chemical engineering design competition whose task was to design a dimethyl carbonate production plant. At that time, a fairly in-depth investigation was conducted into dimethyl carbonate, and it was found that the ester exchange method was the commonly used production process in China, and it was also considered the most mature technique. I’d like to ask gently: is the transesterification method still being used for new projects these days? At that time, there seemed to be a few more advanced methods as well, but they were all still in the pilot stage, such as the urea alcoholysis method and various one-step CO synthesis methods. However, we used the urea hydrolysis method back then; I can hardly remember the details anymore. It seems that everything was based on written summaries, discussions, and calculations, with no practical industrial application aspect. In such cases, it’s better to consult relevant design firms, or try using software for simulations to get a rough idea.