College of Engineering Unit:
The purpose of this project is to create a preliminary design for a propionic acid plant with the capability to produce 50,000 metric tons of food grade propionic acid each year. Propionic acid is a naturally occurring carboxylic acid with the molecular formula C3H6O2. It can be produced through chemical synthesis or bacterial fermentation. The reaction pathway used for this project is called ethylene carbonylation, where ethylene is reacted with carbon monoxide and water to form propanoic acid. The proposed plant uses a plug flow reactor with catalyst packed tubes. The catalyst used is palladium acetylacetonate. After the reactor, the gaseous product is fed to a quencher to bring the propanoic acid into the liquid phase. Then the water and acid mixture is sent to a distillation column to purify the propanoic acid product. The excess gas is treated in an incinerator and reactor to oxidize the carbon monoxide. The proposed plant would need to produce propanoic acid at a price of $1.25/kg in order to be competitive with the market price.
