CE 408, Spring 2018: Design Project Statement — Lactide for Polylactic Acid

1. Project

This year’s design project is a version of project E.1.14 (Polylactic Acid) defined on p. E-4 of
Towler and Sinnott’s Appendix E (see pp. 1267-1270), the description of which reads as follows:
“Polylactic acid is a biodegradable polymer. It can be made from lactic acid, which can be
produced by fermentation of glucose. Because it is biodegradable and can be manufactured from
agricultural products, polylactic acid is potentially a renewable material. US 6,326,458 assigned
to Cargill Inc. describes a process for making polylactic acid from lactic acid. Estimate the cost
of production of the purified polymer.”

The specific goal of the project is to develop a preliminary design and economic analysis for a
plant producing 300 million lb/yr of polylactic acid polymer from a feed stream of crude lactic
acid.

The purpose of this document is to flesh out the preceding brief description with more
information, and also specific statements about the scope of the project and required level of
detail. Please read it carefully in order to understand what is being asked of you, so that you can
direct your group’s effort appropriately. Your first step should be to read carefully and
understand thoroughly the underlying patent (US Patent No. 6,326,458 B1; Gruber et al., 2001),
which can be downloaded from the “Patents” page.

2. Process

Given the time constraints imposed by a one-semester project, you are being asked to consider
only part of the process flowsheet shown in Gruber et al.’s Figure 2, reproduced below, and to
make certain simplifications according to the following points. Numbers of units and streams
refer this figure. Additional general notes regarding the process are also provided below.

(a) Simplify the process by combining he evaporator (22) and pre-polymer reactor (38) into one
evaporator/reactor. This simplification is addressed in (col. 10, line 64)–(col. 11, line 18) of
Gruber et al.’s patent.

(b) You do NOT have to design the polymerization reactor (110). Thus, your process flowsheet
effectively ends with stream (106). You DO, however, have to consider the polymerization
reaction stoichiometry insofar as the amount of polymer product determines how much purified
lactide is required in stream (106).

With the preceding simplifications, the major unit operations comprising the scope of your
design will be the combined evaporator/pre-polymer reactor (i.e., one unit combining the
functions of (22) and (38)), the hold tank (44), the lactide reactor (60), and the distillation
column (80).

(c) As noted in the patent and elsewhere, there are two optical isomers of lactic acid (D and L). In
principle, the feed to the process could be pure D, pure L, or a racemic (DL) mixture. The
situation with lactide is more intriguing, because the dimer could be formed from two L-lactic
acid molecules (L-lactide), two D-lactic acid molecules (D-lactide), or one D- and one L-lactide
molecule (meso-lactide), aside from the possibility of a racemic mixture comprising half D-
lactide and half L-lactide (DL-lactide). These factors, and rates of racemization, exist in reality
and complicate the process. To simplify matters, you do NOT have to distinguish optical
isomers in your design. Rather, you may everywhere take lactic acid to be L-lactic acid, and
lactide to be L-lactide. Use physical properties of these pure optical isomers throughout. You
may use physical properties of the pure D optical isomer if you do not find them listed for the L
isomer, because they are chemically and physically identical molecules except for stereo-
positioning of groups.

(d) Please note the low pressures mentioned throughout the Gruber et al.’s patent, e.g., 1, 2, 10,
60 or 100 mm Hg, etc. This is a low-pressure process. You should choose design pressures
carefully. Lower pressures lower boiling points and thereby avoid thermal decomposition and
polymerization, increase mass transfer rates in evaporators, increase vapor volumes and
volumetric flow rates, and are costly to maintain. You will want to be sure to pay close attention
to the lecture on vacuum systems (see syllabus for date).
(e) You may use a molecular weight of 1000 as a reasonable estimate for the pre-polymer
emerging from the evaporator/pre-polymer reactor (units (22) and (38) combined).

(f) There are a number of points at which you will want to consider tradeoffs and make a rough
optimization. Two examples follow. (i) The more concentrated the incoming lactic acid solution
the higher the raw material cost but the smaller the evaporator (and associated capital
investment). (ii) The more catalyst used the higher the material cost for it but the smaller the
lactide reactor (and associated capital investment).

(g) Elroy looks VERY kindly on processes exhibiting at least some degree of energy integration.
Elroy frowns VERY strongly upon processes without any energy integration.

(h) You should not attempt to base your design on Gruber et al.’s Figure 2 as is. Rather, you
should use this figure to guide your thinking as you develop your own flowsheet. Your
flowsheet will necessarily be different because of the simplifications and stipulations given
above, and alternate choices you make.

3. Level of detail and other requirements

Your design should ultimately produce a specification for each unit operation in terms of
equipment type and size, an identified material of construction, and key operating variables.
This level of detail is sufficient. As in real life, you are NOT responsible for the actual
mechanical design (vessel thickness, etc.), which would be determined by a mechanical engineer
from the firm producing the quotation for any given piece of equipment. Additional general
notes regarding requirements for the design are also provided below.

Evaporators/reactors. Specify type; size/dimensions; temperature, pressure and composition of

input and output lactic acid/polylactic acid streams, and output vapor stream; and required
amount of steam. The requirements for your design of the evaporator/pre-polymer reactor (i.e.,
the unit combining the functions of (22) and (38)) are relaxed in the sense that it may be a rough
estimate. For the lactide reactor (60) you must present a more detailed design. In particular, you
must specifically determine a film thickness based on mass transfer considerations, and
incorporate this choice into your design. Note: five-member groups must develop a more
detailed design also for the evaporator/pre-polymer reactor.
The choice of lactic acid feed, and the pressure and basic configuration for the
evaporator/pre-polymer reactor and lactide reactor, must be established by 9 March (Decision
Point 1).

Distillation column. You must develop a detailed design of the distillation column specifying
reflux ratio and boilup ratio; temperature, pressure and composition of feed, distillate and bottom
product streams; column height above feed and below feed, and column diameter; type of
packing or trays; and thermal duty and heat transfer area for reboiler and condenser.
The distillation is a particularly important part of the process. Calculations can be made
by yourself or using UniSim. If you use UniSim, then you must provide it with substantial
amounts of physicochemical property data on lactide, which is not included in the library of
available components. Relying on the base estimation package based only on MW and boiling
point will be grossly inaccurate and therefore unacceptable. You must also carefully check the
properties of lactic acid, and augment them as necessary. Start the distillation model early to be
sure you produce a converged model that reasonably approximates reality. Do not underestimate
the amount of work involved in getting this unit operation right. If you use UniSim, then you
must also prepare one or more McCabe-Thiele diagrams that explain your design and roughly
check the numbers. The pressure, VLE data and configuration for your distillation process must
be reported by 30 March (Decision Point 2).

Heat exchangers. Determine and state thermal duty, heat transfer area, temperature and
pressure of input and output streams, and type of heat exchanger.

Fluid lines. Your design must include sizes of all lines between units (must be standard sizes),
and pump power for each line. These specifications must be reported by 20 April (Decision
Point 3). You must also specifically select the pump for the line from the hold tank (44) to the
lactide reactor (60). (The term “fluid transfer mechanism” used throughout Gruber et al.’s patent
means pump.)

Flow sheet. Your completed design (and in particular, report) must contain a neat, computer-
generated, detailed flow diagram. It should resemble Towler and Sinnott’s Figure 2.8 (p. 39). It
may not be a UniSim flowsheet. Streams must be labeled, with information about each stream
(temperature, pressure, phase, composition) tabulated below by number. Information must be
given in units customary among engineers in this country (not Planet X on the galactic rim), i.e.,
flow rates in lb/h or kg/h, pressures in psi or kPa, temperatures in °F or °C, dimensions in ft or
m, and pipe sizes in in. Although you might use other units in calculations, they must be
converted into acceptable units in your final presentation. Also, you should retain extra
significant figures in order not to let round-off error corrupt your calculations. However, you
should ultimately report only a reasonable number of digits. Net: a flow rate expressed as, e.g.,
1.344789002 × 108 g/week WILL NOT FLY with Elroy or any of your project supervisors.

4. Materials and services available, and other specifications

(a) Materials available

Lactic acid at $0.69/lb for 50% solution, $0.78/lb for 88% solution, f.o.b.
FASCAT® at $12/lb, f.o.b.

(b) Services available

Steam, 150 psig, saturated: $15 / 1000 kg

Cooling water, 60 psig, 30 °C supply, 40 °C return: $0.20 / 1000 gal
Process water (chilled), 60 psig, 15 °C: $1.50 / 1000 gal
Electricity: $0.06 / kWh
Wastewater treatment: $3.00 / 1000 gal
(c) Product specification: polylactic acid (PLA), 200,000 MW, sells for $1.00/lb.
(d) On stream time: assume 8000 hours / year.

5. Guidelines and requirements for economic analysis

Assume 20-year project life, 6% annual effective interest rate, 40% tax rate.

Results and criteria specifically to be addressed in your final report are: fixed and working
capital investment, manufacturing cost, and revenue; return on investment (minimum acceptable
15% after income tax), and net present value.

Base capital cost estimates mainly on tables in Towler and Sinnott (especially Table 7.1 (pp.
314–317) and Table 7.2 (pp. 322–324)), which yield reasonable study estimates. Do NOT
expend effort contacting actual vendors for quotations on specific pieces of equipment.

The stated selling price of PLA is realistic, but is expected to fall (and needs to fall for PLA to
become more competitive relative to other commodity polymers). Also, growing popularity of
and demand for PLA will likely reduce lactic acid prices. You should base your design on the
prices stated above. However, without changing the design, you should also consider the impact
on economics if: (i) lactic acid prices fall by 20%, all else unchanged; (ii) PLA prices fall by
20%, all else unchanged; and (iii) both prices fall by 20%, all else unchanged.

As with process stream variables, figures from the economic analysis should be reported with a
reasonable number of digits, especially as your cost estimates will be subject to ±30% error or
more. In other words, report e.g. a net present value as $12,400,000, not $12,364,078.92.