Manufacturing methods of dimethylcarbonate (DMC) are examined, in particular those which have been industrially exploited. Apart from the old phosgenation process, two processes based on the oxy-carbonylation of methanol went on stream: the copper chloride catalysed, one step liquid-phase process, by EniChem, and the palladium catalysed, two steps gas-phase process, via methylnitrite, by UBE. Two further technologies are attractive for full-scale development in the next future: the gas-phase direct methanol oxy-carbonylation and the alkylenecarbonate transesterification process. In the last few years, the use of DMC in the chemical industry has considerably grown, due to its chemical properties and its non-toxicity, an outstanding example being represented by the non-phosgene production of aromatic polycarbonates. Other very promising fields of large scale DMC application are as solvent and as oxygenate in reformulated fuels.