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Alex Woltornist
Maxine Ankora, Fletcher Horowitz, Colton Mitchell, Lisa Goulding
October 9, 2015
Project Design Memo II

Objective: To design a reactor plant to purify crude lactic acid to polymer grade lactic acid while
considering the effect of feedstock reactor yields, and design choices on plant economics and
environmental impact.
Abstract: This memo proposes a base case process flow diagram for a plant that purifies lactic
acid. Initially, the design does not reach product specifications. The base case was designed
solely for the production of LA, without taking into account the efficiency of the reactors,
separation units, or economics. Modifications to the plant were considered to make the plant
more efficient and cost effective and will continue to be iterated upon. For example, recycle
streams for methanol were added to the block flow diagram and the final three distillation
columns were re-tuned, allowing for the removal of one of the columns in addition to improved
product flow rate. The cost of the plant was analyzed, and will almost certainly decrease as the
operation design improves. The Quality Lab Control layout and labor flow were proposed. The
labor flow is presented in a block flow with even work division amongst two people for eight
hour shifts.

I.

Attachments:
Unit Operations Summaries

Base Case Simulation

In the base case simulation of the LA purification plant, the goal was to get the simulation
to converge and meet specifications. The simulation was run and can be seen in Figure 1. The
stream summaries are shown in Table 1.
The crude lactic acid (LA), containing 57.1 wt% LA, 38.1 wt% water, and 4.8 wt% acetic
acid (AA), and methanol solution, containing 99.6 wt% methanol and 0.4 wt% water, are
entering the reactor heated by a heater to 120C. The two streams are being mixed prior to
entering a PFR. A PFR was used for the first reactor because we first tried a reactive distillation
column and there was not a high enough conversion. In a reactive distillation column, the
mixture reacts and then separates. Perhaps the reactant components were being distilled before
they had a chance to react. With a PFR there is no evaporation. It maintained contact between the
reactants. The PFR is operating adiabatically. It has 23 tubes of length 50m and diameter 0.5m.
The unit operation summary for the PFR can be seen in Table 2 in Appendix 1. The reaction
happening in the PFR is the esterification of LA and methanol into methyl lactate and water. The
kinetics for this reaction were found from Troupes paper, The kinetics of methanol-lactic acid
reaction. The following equation was used to calculate the reaction constant, k, with a reference
temperature of 100.
log 104 k =10.913693193.3 /T
The activation energy was calculated using the Arrhenius equation. The pressure at the
reactor inlet was set to 5 atm. The PFR is loaded with 500000 grams of catalyst with an assumed
bed voidage of 0.7. The stream tables shown in Table __, shows that the initial crude LA reacts in
the PFR 83%. The stream entering the PFR, FD-MIX, contains 0.296 kmol/hr of LA, 1.185
kmol/hr methanol, 0.997 kmol/hr water, and 0.047 kmol/hr methyl lactate. The stream leaving
the PFR, PFR-EFF, contains 0.05 kmol/hr of LA, 0.246 kmol/hr methyl lactate, 0.938 kmol/hr
methanol, and 1.243 kmol/hr water. The lactic acid reacted with the methanol to produce methyl
lactate, ML, and water. The residence time in the PFR is 62.186 days, as seen in Table__. The
effluent from the PFR is sent through a RADFRAC distillation column, called METHDIS in the
PFD.
The METHDIS column was used to separate out remaining methanol in the stream. The
column was designed to have 50 stages, has a total condenser, a kettle reboiler, a reflux ratio of
1, and a specified distillate rate of 1 kmol/hr. the heat duty to the reboiler is 0.01633 Gcal/hr and
the condenser heat duty is -0.01558 Gcal/hr. The complete summary of the unit operations for
METHDIS can be seen in Table 3 in Appendix 1. The stream exiting the top of the column,
METHREC, mainly contains methanol, 0.935 kmol/hr, and some water, 0.065 kmol/hr. The
stream exiting the bottoms of the column, BOTTOMS, contains 1.179 kmol/hr water, 0.05
kmol/hr LA, 0.003 kmol/hr methanol, 0.037 kmol/hr AA. The BOTTOMS stream was heated
through HEATER1 to 138C and then enters a Distl distillation column, DIST1.
DIST1 was designed to have 30 stages where the feed stage was above stage 10. The
reflux ratio was set to 0.5 and the distillate to feed mole ratio was 0.5. The condenser pressure
and reboiler pressures were both set to 2 bar. The condenser heat duty was 0.010785 Gcal/hr and

the reboiler heat duty was 0.010398 Gcal/hr. The complete summary of the unit operations for
DIST1 can be seen in Table 4 in Appendix 1. The tops of this column come off as WASTE1,
containing 0.432 kmol/hr water, 0.013 kmol/hr AA, and 0.009 ML. This gets rid of a lot of
excess water. The goal of DIST1 and DIST2 were to separate out the water so that the AA could
also be separated out. There was some issues with the separation of AA because it was so dilute
with water. The bottoms stream of DIST1, called MLAC in the PFD, contains 0.432 kmol/hr
water, 0.05 kmol/hr LA, 0.03 kmol/hr AA, and 0.246 kmol/hr ML. The bottoms is then fed to
DIST2.
DIST2 is a Distl distillation column which, like DIST1, separates more water and AA.
This column was designed with 30 stages and the feed enters above stage 15. The reflux ratio
was set 10 0.6 and the distillate to feed mole ratio was set to 0.6. The condenser pressure was set
to 2 bar and the reboiler pressure was set to 10 bar. The condenser heat duty was 0.006923
Gcal/hr and the heat duty for the reboiler was 0.008945 Gcal/hr. The complete summary for the
unit operation of DIST2 can be seen in Table 5 in Appendix 1. The stream entering DIST2,
MLAC, enters at 133.6 C. This was deemed okay because the boiling point of AA is 118.1 C, and
the boiling point of water is 100C, while the boiling point of methyl lactate is 144 C. The tops of
the column, WASTE2, contains 0.746 kmol/hr water, 0.003 kmol/hr methanol, 0.008 kmol/hr
AA, and 0.001 kmol/hr ML. Now, all the methanol and water are out of the process stream. The
stream leaving the bottom of the column, METLACP, contains only 0.05 kmol/hr LA, 0.016
kmol/hr AA, and 0.237 kmol/hr ML. This stream is then heated by HEATER2 and sent into the
hydrolysis reactor.
The second reaction was found using the equilibrium constants found in the Troup paper
at a reference temperature of 100. The following equation was used to calculate it. Again the
Arrhenius equation was used to calculate the activation energy.
K=k 1 /k1
Where K = 2.69 at 100C.
The hydrolysis reactor was chosen to be an RStoic model, called HYDROLY. An RStoic
model was used for the second reactor because all that is needed is a material balance, which was
completed in the first memo, and a conversion, which we could determine from the
specifications for the desired product. The reactor had an operating temperature of 300 K and
pressure of 1 atm. The outlet temperature of the fluid was 26.85 C. The heat duty of the reactor
was -0.00626539 Gcal/hr. The complete summary for the unit operation of HYDROLY can be
seen in Table 6 in Appendix 1. Water was also added to the reactor to drive the reaction forward
to produce LA and methanol. The exit stream from the reactor, PRODUCT, contained 1.198
kmol/hr water, 0.239 kmol/hr LA, 0.189 kmol/hr methanol, 0.016 kmol/hr AA, and 0.047
kmol/hr ML. The PRODUCT stream then entered DIST3.
DIST3 was a RadFrac model distillation column. DIST3, 4, and 5 are all trying to further
purify the final product of LA. DIST3 was designed with 50 stages, a total condenser, a kettle
reboiler, a distillate to feed ratio of 0.7, and a reflux ratio of 0.5. The reboiler heat duty was
0.02079 Gcal/hr. The complete summary for the unit operation of DIST3 can be seen in Table 7

in Appendix 1. In DIST 3, the tops stream, WASTE3, takes out most of the water. The WASTE3
stream contains 0.991 kmol/hr water, 0.189 kmol/hr methanol, and 0.0033 kmol/hr AA. The
bottoms stream from DIST3, LA-ML, contains 0.207 kmol/hr water, 0.239 kmol/hr LA, 0.013
kmol/hr AA, and 0.047 kmol/hr ML. LA-ML then passes through a heater to cool it from 124C
to 105C so that the rest of the water would leave the next distillation column, DIST4.
DIST4 is a Distl model distillation column. It was designed with 45 stages and the feed
stage coming in above stage 13. The reflux ratio was set to 1 and the distillate to feed mole ratio.
the condenser pressure was set to 1 bar and the reboiler pressure was set to 6 bar. The condenser
heat duty was 0.00498037 Gcal/hr and the reboiler heat duty was 0.007734 Gcal/hr. The
complete summary for the unit operation of DIST4 can be seen in Table 8 in Appendix 1. The
tops of DIST4, WASTE4, took out the rest of the water. WASTE4 contained 0.207 kmol/hr
water, 0.13 kmol/hr AA, and 0.033 kmol/hr ML. This leaves 0.296 kmol/hr LA, and 0.037
kmol/hr ML in the bottoms stream, LA-ML2.
Now all that needs to be done is the separation of LA and ML. This is pretty easy because
the boiling point of LA is 119 C and the boiling point of ML is 144 C. LA-ML2 is passed
through a HEATER4 to 123C and then sent to DIST5 which is also a Distl model distillation
column. DIST5 was designed with 30 stages with the feed stream coming in above the 12 stage.
the reflux ratio was set to 2 and the distillate to feed mole ratio was set to 0.5. The condenser
pressure was set to 2 bar and the reboiler pressure was set to 6 bar. The condenser heat duty was
0.005311 Gcal/hr and the reboiler heat duty was 0.0073995 Gcal/hr. The complete summary for
the unit operation of DIST5 can be seen in Table 9 in Appendix 1. The tops, WASTE5 contained
0.112 kmol/hr LA and 0.014 kmol/hr ML. The bottoms stream, PURELA, contained only LA,
0.127 kmol/hr.

Proposal for Plant Modifications

Possible Future Events Affecting the Results
There is always a risk of natural disasters happening anywhere in the world that a plant is
set up. It could be an earthquake, a hurricane, tornado, etc. Any of these things could damage the
plant physically. Flooding, fires, structural damage, or damage to equipment are all possibilities.
Natural disasters cannot be avoided, but, based on the location the buildings could be enhanced
to combat the most common natural disasters in the area.
Equipment failure can lead to decreased production of purified lactic acid. Fouling of
piping or a failure of any of the unit operations will result in a shutdown of the plant for
maintenance which would delay production and cause a decrease in product per year.
Labor strikes can cause major disruptions to industry, commerce and the lives of many
people who aren't even connected to the strike itself. This is because if workers strike, production
stops and customers of the company are no longer getting product. To prevent strikes from
happening, our workers would be paid fairly and management will listen to any issues they have
and try to resolve them expeditiously.
A paradigm shift that leads to a higher demand of biodegradable plastics would cause a
need for increased production of lactic acid which may require our plant to become larger. A
paradigm shift away from products that require lactic acid would cause our plant to go out of
business if we are unable to convert it to something still useful.
If something happens to the providers of methanol or the crude lactic acid it could cause a
change in the operating costs of the plant. If one of the providers runs out of business then the
price of the raw material will increase because there is one less provider for the same amount of
demand. On the other hand, if a new provider comes to market, it could cause the raw materials
to be cheaper.
If there is a regulation change for any of the chemicals used in the process it could cause
our plan to fall below environmental standards requiring the potential addition of new equipment
or better equipment.
Recommendations Regarding Cost, Efficiency, Energy, and Environment
The tuning of the plant and the addition of recycle streams to our process will increase
the efficiency of the plant as well as save money in resources and equipment. Currently, we have
minimal pre-heating or cooling of streams, for the next block we will look to not only add
recycle streams but also optimize the conditions in all reactors and separators. This will require
researching the optimal conditions for each separation. If the equipment can be made to work
more efficiently, one or more distillations columns can be removed as well as the length of our
PFR, which is currently 55 meters, to be shortened. For example, in the base case system, nearly
47% of the product lactic acid is in a waste stream (WASTE5).
The plant must also be sized correctly as our current base case only produces 100,000
kg/year of product. However, much of this can be compensated with better-tuned reactors and
separation systems. With some of the proposed modifications, such as a decrease in the feed to

distillate ratio of the final distillation column, the lactic acid product flow rate can increase from
100,000 kg/year to approximately 200,000 kg/year at high purity without changing the feed
stream flow rates. These modifications also remove a superfluous distillation column, which will
reduce capital and maintenance costs.
The next modifications to consider are a fix for the 62-day residence time PFR, more
thorough recycle streams, and further tuning of the reactors and columns. These modifications
are in that order of priority.

Proposal for Quality Control Lab

The layout for the Quality Control lab is shown in Figure 2. The equipment was already
available to test the samples, since this lab already tests a similar product. The equipment just
needs to be placed, turned on and staffed appropriately. The Lab Information Management
System (LIMS) is placed in between the two HPLCs because both scientists are using the LIMS
in between using the HPLCs. The sample dilution area is situated so that both staff member one
and staff member two can be dilute samples at the same time if they need to.
The lab will need to be staffed by two people on each of the three eight hour shifts. The
staffing was decided based on the amount of tasks needed to be completed and the amount of
time in one shift of work. The lab runs 24/7. One shift is eight hours with two ten minute breaks
and one 45 minute lunch break. Taking out breaks, the actual amount of time spent working in a
single shift is 415 minutes. In a single day of three shifts, 1245 minutes are spent working. The
calculated values for time per task and variability are shown in Table 10. The breakdown of
tasks for each person is shown in the block flow diagram in Figure 3. The labor flow for each
person is also shown in Figure 2.

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