Process simulation and economic evaluation of the industrial production of short-chain polyglycerol oligomers

Abstract

Despite the perennial demand, the Brazilian domestic market cannot absorb the large quantities of glycerol generated from the growing biodiesel industry, having the producers to resort to storage and export and solutions that devalue the renewable fuel production. Thus, it is essential to seek new alternatives for the destination of glycerol. The objective of this study is to carry out a technical and economic evaluation of the polyglycerol production, focusing on diglycerol and triglycerol, from the glycerol derived from biodiesel production. For this, two polyglycerol plant configurations were simulated and designed. It was shown that the plant configuration focus on diglycerol was not profitable in the base case (US$ – 2.7 million). The plant configuration focused on triglycerol, which was profitable (US$ 1.1 million), but the investment does not return within five years of operation. The main reason for this was the high separation cost (>85% of the equipment cost) due to high viscosities and the need to operate in a vacuum. However, it was also shown that the processes can be economically viable depending on market conditions (79–83% price variations, which is within observed price ranges), though it is not yet possible to conceive a sole plant, which is able to operate in both configurations.