Glycerol carbonate production from glycerol and diethyl carbonate: a comparative study between a separated reaction/distillation (SRD) process and a reactive distillation (RD) process

Abstract

Glycerol carbonate is one of the valuable products that can be converted from glycerol produced in the biodiesel industry. In this work, the continuous process of glycerol carbonate production via transesterification from crude glycerol and diethyl carbonate will be developed using Aspen Plus simulation. There are two processes to be considered. First, the separated reaction/distillation (SRD) process consists of a continuously stirred tank reactor for the reaction section and a distillation column for the purification section. Second, the reactive distillation (RD) process consists of a reactive distillation column that can accommodate both the reaction and purification in a single column, and a conventional distillation column for the purification section. After the design is complete, the optimization will be done by connecting the model in Aspen Plus to MATLAB and using the Genetic Algorithm to optimize the model. The results show that the RD process is superior to the SRD process in terms of both performance and economics. The RD process can shift the reaction equilibrium, resulting in high conversion and a large quantity of product. Moreover, when considering the economic value, the RD process is also better due to its lower total capital cost, lower operational cost, lower total annual cost, shorter payback period, and higher %IRR.