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Production of tricetin from glycerol using reactive distillation |
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| รหัสดีโอไอ | |
| Title | Production of tricetin from glycerol using reactive distillation |
| Creator | Pimpatthar Siricharnsakunchai |
| Contributor | Amornchai Arpornwichanop |
| Publisher | Chulalongkorn University |
| Publication Year | 2554 |
| Keyword | Glycerin -- Recycling, Distillation, Biodiesel fuels industry -- Waste minimization, Biodiesel fuels industry -- By-products |
| Abstract | In a conventional process of biodiesel production, glycerol is obtained as by-product. Increases in demand and production of biodiesel enlarge the amount of glycerol generated. Efficient utilization of crude glycerol could lead to significant economic and environmental benefits. The production of triacetin, which is an important chemical used in various applications, might be of potential interest to add value of crude glycerol. The purpose of this work is to study the esterification of glycerol with acetic acid to produce triacetin. Due to the nature of the equilibrium-limited esterification reaction, a reactive distillation in which chemical reaction and separation are carried out at the same time, is considered to improve the triacetin production. The study was divided into 3 parts. In the first part, effect of key design and operating parameters on the performance of triacetin production was studied. The simulation results showed that when glycerol and acetic acid are fed into the reactive distillation at temperature of 25 oC and acetic acid to glycerol ratio of six, the glycerol conversion of 99% and the triacetin purity of 99.9% can be achieved. Based on a total annual cost analysis, the optimal configuration of reactive distillation column consists of 26 reactive stages. In the second part, design of a reactive distillation based on a concept of thermally coupled distillation sequence was performed. The energy utilization of triacetin production obtained from this arrangement was analyzed and compared to a conventional configuration without thermal coupling. The results showed the energy savings of around 48.6%. In the final part of the study, effect of feeding a crude glycerol at different ratios of methanol and glycerol on triacetin production was investigated. The results indicated that an increase of methanol in the crude glycerol derived from biodiesel production decreases the purity of triacetin obtained. In addition, the mole fraction of water at the distillate stream is decreased. However, the conversion of glycerol and the yield of triacetin obtained with crude glycerol are slightly lower than those with pure glycerol. |
| URL Website | cuir.car.chula.ac.th |
