Continuous Flow Metathesis for Direct Valorization of Food Waste: An Example of Cocoa Butter Triglyceride

Abstract

The direct chemical conversion of cocoa butter triglycerides, a material available as a postmanufacture waste stream from the food industry, to 1-decene by way of ethenolysis is reported. The conversion of the raw waste material was made possible by use of 1 mol % of the [RuCl2(iBu-phoban)2(3-phenylindenyl)] catalyst. The process has been investigated in both batch and flow conditions, where the latter approach employs a Teflon AF-2400 tube-in-tube gas–liquid membrane contactor to deliver ethylene to the reaction system. These preliminary studies culminate in a continuous processing system, which maintained a constant output over a 150 min period tested.

The Future of Ethenolysis in Biobased Chemistry

“…These results were translated to a continuous flow setup with 1 mol % (10 000 ppm) catalyst. This lead to conversions up to 40 % with a retention time of 60 min and 6 bar ethylene …”

“…This lead to conversionsu pt o4 0% with ar etention time of 60 min and 6bar ethylene. [43] Soy FAME is another fatty-acid-based feedstock and is, therefore, expectedt ob ehave similart oM O. The conversion of soy FAME proceeds similarly to MO, but with lower TONs.…”

Flow Technology for Organometallic-Mediated Synthesis

“…Ley explored the direct chemical conversion of cocoa butter triglycerides, a material available as a post-manufacture waste stream from the food industry, to 1-decene by ethenolysis [81]. The conversion of the raw waste material was made possible by use of 1 mol% of the [RuCl 2 (iBu-phoban) 2 (3-phenylindenyl)] catalyst.…”

Automation of route identification and optimisation based on data-mining and chemical intuition

“…1 Different bio-renery concepts, either based on lignocellulose or grasses, targeting bulk platform molecules [2][3][4][5] or high-value chemicals 6 were proposed. In addition, there is a continuous search for new bio-feedstocks, among examples we can list distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), 7 food-processing industry waste, such as unused triglycerides, 8 or microalgae. 9 In all the different options for the bio-based supply chain there will be a need for tailoring the manufacturing processes to regional biomass availability and global demands for products.…”