Diethyl oxalate (DEO) is widely used in fine chemical industry. In comparison with traditional esterification process, carbon monoxide coupling process is a novel routine for DEO production. This environmentally friendly process provides better selectivity and yield. Its unique feature is that a closed regeneration-coupling circulation is formed. Toxic byproduct-nitric oxide (NO) from coupling reaction is recycled to re-produce ethyl nitrite through regeneration reaction. This avoids significant amount of NOx emission. However, due to a few NOx emission, a contaminant handling system is applied for environmental protection. A systematical environmental analysis is also carried out to assess this process. Regeneration-coupling circulation brings interaction behaviors and some trade-offs including reactor size and recycle flowrate, regeneration and coupling reaction, loss of reactants and NO emission. Thus, a rigorous steady simulation is established to investigate these trade-offs. Then DEO process is optimized to obtain the optimal design. Finally a more economic flowsheet to produce DEO is proposed. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.