Team 16: The Chemies It’s not easy being green Dave JankeMike Hall Briley LambertLaura Hamilton

Outline  Project Overview  Process Flow Diagram  Design Decisions  Obstacles  Obstacles Overcome  Current Status  Questions

Project Overview  Design a pilot plant to produce poly(  - hydroxybutyrate), a biodegradable polymer.

Process Flow Diagram

Design Decisions  Agitated bubble tank reactor  Good mass transfer  Long residence time possible  Preliminary size – 210 liters  Impeller and mixing equipment Picture from Chemineer, Inc.

Design Decisions  Membrane separator  Remove first catalyst  Static Mixer  Cost  Heat Transfer Picture from Chemineer, Inc.

Obstacles  Reactor sizing  Gas hold-up  Mixing  Sparger  Polymerization reaction  Heat exchange  Residence time

Obstacles Overcome  Reaction Kinetics  Properties of β-butyrolactone  HYSYS  Enthalpy of reaction  Distillation

Current Status  Request for mixing/gas dispersion book  Reactor design estimates  Distillation design in HYSYS  Commercially available equipment  Extruder  Mixing Equipment  Membrane Separator

Questions?