Process design and optimization for etherification of glycerol with isobutene

Jingjun Liu; Prodromos Daoutidis; Bolun Yang

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2016.01.055

Process design and optimization for etherification of glycerol with isobutene

Jingjun Liu, Prodromos Daoutidis, Bolun Yang

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Surplus glycerol from biodiesel production can be transformed to valuable fuel additives through etherification with isobutene. Our previous work has studied the kinetics and thermodynamics of this reaction. In the present work, a novel process design is proposed. An optimization problem is also formulated to minimize the cost of production of the di-tert-butyl ethers and tri-tert-butyl ether of glycerol. The resulting mixed-integer nonlinear program enables simultaneous determination of values of key decision variables including number of column trays, feed tray location of column, volume of reactor, process flowrates etc. The optimal design leads to a minimal production cost of glycerol ethers of 1.201 $/kg, which is dominated by the cost of isobutene.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	326-335
Number of pages	10
Journal	Chemical Engineering Science
Volume	144
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2016.01.055
State	Published - Apr 22 2016
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) (Grant No. 201406280135 ) is gratefully acknowledged.

Keywords

Etherification
Glycerol ether
Isobutene
Optimization
Process design

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Process design and optimization for etherification of glycerol with isobutene",

abstract = "Surplus glycerol from biodiesel production can be transformed to valuable fuel additives through etherification with isobutene. Our previous work has studied the kinetics and thermodynamics of this reaction. In the present work, a novel process design is proposed. An optimization problem is also formulated to minimize the cost of production of the di-tert-butyl ethers and tri-tert-butyl ether of glycerol. The resulting mixed-integer nonlinear program enables simultaneous determination of values of key decision variables including number of column trays, feed tray location of column, volume of reactor, process flowrates etc. The optimal design leads to a minimal production cost of glycerol ethers of 1.201 $/kg, which is dominated by the cost of isobutene.",

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AU - Liu, Jingjun

AU - Daoutidis, Prodromos

AU - Yang, Bolun

N1 - Funding Information: Financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) (Grant No. 201406280135 ) is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2016/4/22

Y1 - 2016/4/22

N2 - Surplus glycerol from biodiesel production can be transformed to valuable fuel additives through etherification with isobutene. Our previous work has studied the kinetics and thermodynamics of this reaction. In the present work, a novel process design is proposed. An optimization problem is also formulated to minimize the cost of production of the di-tert-butyl ethers and tri-tert-butyl ether of glycerol. The resulting mixed-integer nonlinear program enables simultaneous determination of values of key decision variables including number of column trays, feed tray location of column, volume of reactor, process flowrates etc. The optimal design leads to a minimal production cost of glycerol ethers of 1.201 $/kg, which is dominated by the cost of isobutene.

AB - Surplus glycerol from biodiesel production can be transformed to valuable fuel additives through etherification with isobutene. Our previous work has studied the kinetics and thermodynamics of this reaction. In the present work, a novel process design is proposed. An optimization problem is also formulated to minimize the cost of production of the di-tert-butyl ethers and tri-tert-butyl ether of glycerol. The resulting mixed-integer nonlinear program enables simultaneous determination of values of key decision variables including number of column trays, feed tray location of column, volume of reactor, process flowrates etc. The optimal design leads to a minimal production cost of glycerol ethers of 1.201 $/kg, which is dominated by the cost of isobutene.

KW - Etherification

KW - Glycerol ether

KW - Isobutene

KW - Optimization

KW - Process design

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Process design and optimization for etherification of glycerol with isobutene

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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