Sustainable production of glucaric acid from corn stover via glucose oxidation: An assessment of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic oxidation production routes
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Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Glucaric acid is being used increasingly as a food additive, corrosion inhibitor, in deicing, and in detergents, and is also a potential starting material for the production of adipic acid, the key monomer for nylon-66. This work describes a techno-economic analysis of a potential bio-based process for the production of pure glucaric acid from corn stover (biomass). Two alternative routes for oxidation of glucose to glucaric acid are considered: via heterogeneous catalytic oxidation with air, and by homogeneous glucose oxidation using nitric acid. Techno-economic and lifecycle assessments (TEA, LCA) are made for both oxidation routes and cover the entire process from biomass to pure crystalline glucaric acid that can be used as a starting material for the production of valuable chemicals. This is the first TEA of pure glucaric acid production incorporating ion exchange and azeotropic evaporation below 50 °C to avoid lactone formation. The developed process models were simulated in Aspen Plus V9. The techno-economic assessment shows that both production routes are economically viable leading to minimum selling prices of glucaric acid of ∼$2.53/kg and ∼$2.91/kg for the heterogeneous catalytic route and the homogeneous glucose oxidation route respectively. It is shown that the heterogeneous catalytic oxidation route is capable of achieving a 22% lower environmental impact than the homogeneous glucose oxidation route. Opportunities for further improvement in sustainable glucaric acid production at industrial scale are identified and discussed.
Date Issued
2020-01-01
Date Acceptance
2019-10-28
Citation
Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 2020, 153, pp.337-349
ISSN
0263-8762
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
337
End Page
349
Journal / Book Title
Chemical Engineering Research and Design
Volume
153
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/K014749/1
Subjects
0904 Chemical Engineering
0911 Maritime Engineering
0102 Applied Mathematics
Strategic, Defence & Security Studies
Chemical Engineering
0914 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-11-02