Universal and low energy-demanding platform to produce propylene carbonate from CO2 using hydrophilic ionic liquids

•COSMO-RS method to evaluate extractive properties of ionic liquid + propylene carbonate pair in water.•Experimental characterization of phase equilibria for ionic liquid + propylene carbonate + water.•Experimental determination of water impact in the catalytic activity of selected ionic liquids.•COSMO/Aspen tool models and simulates the close-cycle processes for selected ionic liquids.•Hydrophilicity within the novel separation scheme stands as the optimization key for the process.