Design and optimization of an intensified process to produce acrylic acid as added product value from glycerol generated in the biodiesel production

Crude glycerol has become very competitive due to its low price and its use as a platform molecule for the generation of high value-added chemical products. This work proposes a new process to produce acrylic acid from crude glycerol using intensified processes (reactive distillation schemes). An economic analysis was also carried out in relation to the total annual cost to determine the costs associated to each reactive scheme. It was determined that the proposed schemes are economically viable and represent considerable benefits such as the clear reduction in the number of processes equipment. At the same time, it has been determined that these processes can use crude glycerol as raw material to obtain acrylic acid with a purity greater than 90 % in mol. Likewise, the proposed schemes show a significant reduction in energy consumption, up to 74 %, to produce acrylic acid in contrast to previous reported works. (c) 2022 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.