(195d) Economic Analysis of the Production of p-Xylene From 5-Hydroxymethyfurfural

Economic
analysis of the production of p-xylene from 5-hydroxymethyfurfural

Zhaojia Lin¹,
Vladimiros Nikolakis², Marianthi Ierapetritou¹

¹ Department of Chemical and
Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey

^2. Catalysis Center for Energy
Innovation & Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,
University of Delaware

This
work focuses on the techno-economic analysis of alternative routes for the
production of p-xylene from 5-hydroxymethyfurfural (HMF), which is a biomass derived
platform chemical. P-xylene is a key intermediate in the production of
terepthalic acid, which can be polymerized to polyester polyethylene
terephthalate (PET). PET is a polymer resin widely used in the synthesis of
fibers and beverage containers. Currently, p-xylene is primarily made from
petroleum-based feedstocks. However, depleting oil resources and rising prices
motivates the development of routes for the efficient synthesis of fuels and
chemicals from renewable sources [1]. 5-hydroxymethyfurfural (HMF), which is
considered as one of the ten most promising biomass-derived chemicals [2], can be used as a raw material for
p-xylene synthesis [3-6]. The conversion of HMF to p-xylene can
be carried out in two steps: from HMF to 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) and from DMF
to p-xylene. First, HMF hydrodeoxygenation can form DMF using either hydrogen [5] or formic acid as an alternative
hydrogen source [6]. Then DMF can react with ethylene [3, 7]
or acrolein [4], followed by a dehydration reaction, to
convert p-xylene. Each route has advantages and disadvantages in terms of use
of renewable feedstocks, raw materials and utility costs. The aims of this work
are to propose alternative flowsheets, to evaluate the economics of the
production, to determine the major contributors of the total cost, and to
explore and identify potential approaches to reduce these costs.

The
analysis was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, an approximate
evaluation of the various alternatives is performed considering different separation
methods and rough estimates of the various parameters needed, whereas at the
second stage a detailed economic estimation of the most promising path is
performed. It is found that conversion and selectivity, the values of which were
taken from the literature [5, 7],
are the most important parameters that affect recycling streams and
separations; and consequently the process economics. Finally sensitivity
analysis was used to examine the impact of different factors on economics and to
identify the most significant catalyst, material or reactor properties, and the
improvement of which will have the maximum impact on process economics.

The
basic models and different flowsheets were studied using ASPEN Plus [8].
ASPEN Economic Analyzer [9]
was also utilized to determine the production cost of p-xylene, considering the
raw material costs of HMF, H₂, and ethylene [10, 11]. The main
findings of this work contain the minimum selling cost of bio-based p-xylene,
the impacts of different factors on the total cost and potential development to
improve the economics of the conversion process.

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8.            Aspen Plus User Guider, 2000, Aspen
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9.            Aspen Process Economic Analyzer, 2009,
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10.          ICIS pricing.  [cited 2011, 28th October];
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11.          Kazi, F.K., et al., Techno-economic analysis
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