In this study, a reactive distillation (RD) coupling pervaporation (PV) process was introduced to intensify the transesterification of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with glycerol to produce glycerol carbonate. The yield of glycerol carbonate can be increased to more than 99.5% due to the timely removal of the by-product methanol. The PV module was used to recover DMC in the azeotrope (DMC/methanol) from the RD column. In addition, another RD process using pressure swing distillation (PSD) to recover DMC was simulated as a comparison. The design variables of both processes were optimized to obtain the lowest total annual cost (TAC), and the greenhouse gas emissions of the two processes were compared. Ultimately, in comparison to the RD-PSD process, the TAC of the RD-PV process was reduced by 18.67%, and the emissions of CO2, SO2, and NO x were reduced by 29.34, 29.52, and 29.52%, respectively.

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