Sustainable Production of ACrylic acId from reNewable waste Glycerol

丙烯酸是一种重要的大宗化学品，用于生产树脂、涂料、粘合剂、纺织品、洗涤剂和其他消费品。它目前是在商业上使用基于化石燃料的路线制造的，特别是从丙烯的氧化，后者是石脑油和石油裂解过程的主要产品。目前，全球丙烯酸市场每年以3-5%的速度增长，英国每年消费250万吨丙烯酸，没有本地生产能力，因此完全依赖从欧盟和亚洲进口。另一方面，甘油是一种丰富而廉价的原料，英国和爱尔兰的年产量为58吨/年。为了实现碳中和社会这一备受追捧的目标，化工行业必须发展并将重点转向新的可持续路线，这些路线仍然能够满足当前对丙烯酸等关键化学品的需求，但同时又能显著减少对环境的有害影响。在这种情况下，SPACING项目的主要目标是示范和扩大利用废甘油制造丙烯酸的新工艺。该项目包括三个相互关联的工作包：第一工作包将涉及设计、测试和表征新的双功能催化材料、稳定性测试和动力学研究，包括将后续测试的规模扩大到200克。- WP2将专注于开发和测试新的集成流化膜反应器。将进行新的实验演示和不同反应条件下的长期测试，包括基准测试和不同反应堆配置的比较。实验结果将用于验证反应器模型。从实验和数值活动中获得的知识将用于指导今后该技术的中试示范。在WP3中，SPACING工艺将被整合到丙烯酸工艺中，包括原料预处理和下游产品分离和精炼。该工艺的技术经济和环境性能将与商业上最先进的丙烯酸制造技术进行比较。

Acrylic acid is an essential bulk chemical commodity used for the production of resins, coatings, adhesives, textile, detergents and other consumer products. It is currently manufactured on the commercial using fossil fuel-based routes, in particular from the oxidation of propylene, the latter being a major product of the naphtha and oil cracking process. The global market of acrylic acid is currently growing of 3-5% annually and the UK is responsible of consuming > 25 ktons/y with no local production capacity thus totally relying on imports from EU and Asia. On the other hand, glycerol is an abundant and cheap feedstock with yearly production of 58 tons/y between UK and Ireland.In order to reach the much sought-after goal of a carbon neutral society, the chemical industry must evolve and shift the focus on new and sustainable routes that are still able to meet current demands of key chemicals, such as acrylic acid, but with significant reduction of detrimental effects on the environment.In this context, the main goal of the SPACING project is the demonstration and scale-up of a new process for acrylic acid manufacturing using waste glycerol. This project comprises three interlinked work packages (WPs):- WP1 will involve the design, testing and characterisation of new bi-functional catalytic materials, stability test and kinetic studies, including the scale-up to 200 grams for the subsequent tests.- WP2 will focus on the development and testing of the new integrated fluidised membrane reactor. Both new experimental demonstration and long-term testing under different reactive conditions will be carried out including the benchmark and comparison of different reactor configurations. The experimental results will be used to validate the reactor model. The knowledge gained both from the experimental and numerical activities will be used as guidance for future pilot-scale demonstration of the technology.- In WP3, the SPACING process will be integrated into the acrylic acid process including feedstock pre-treatment and downstream product separation and refining. The techno-economic and environment performance of the process will be compared with commercial state-of-the-art technologies for acrylic acid manufacturing.