A proposed industrial scale-up of circular bisphenol-A (BPA) production

Abstract

To meet the evolving sustainability goals of the modern-day chemical industry, there is a demand for novel chemical processes that minimize environmental impact while also maximizing profitability. This paper proposes a novel commercial solution for producing bisphenol-A (BPA) from the advanced recycling of polycarbonate waste. Current BPA production methods have major environmental and safety concerns from the use of benzene, high temperatures and pressures, and strong acids, and the proposed novel method addresses all these issues. This advanced recycling process utilizes a base-catalyzed methanolysis reaction with a methanol/toluene solvent mixture to produce BPA and dimethyl carbonate (DMC), a sustainable fuel additive both at 99.99 wt% purity. A prototype process was simulated in Aspen Plus®, and a preliminary process flow diagram was developed. With a target production capacity of 200 000 metric tons of BPA per annum, the major processing equipment is one packed-bed reactor, two crystallizers, and three distillation columns. All required heat exchangers and pumps were integrated into the simulation and can be adjusted based on product specifications and processing capacity. Analysis of green metrics for the novel process demonstrated that the process minimizes waste from a mass standpoint, and a rigorous economic analysis showed that the process is highly profitable in several varied scenarios.