Economic feasibility of a solketal production process from glycerol at small industrial scale

Abstract

In order to achieve an industrial scale production of solketal from glycerol it is necessary to analyze the technical and economic feasibility of this industrial process. The technical study presented in this paper considers a small-medium plant capable of producing solketal with a plant processing capacity in the range of 4,000 and 20,000 glycerol t/yr. The process is simulated using an excess of acetone (glycerol to acetone molar ratio = 1:6). The total capital investment was estimated between USD 1 million and USD 3 million for plant processing capacities ranging from 4,000 to 20,000 glycerol t/yr, respectively. It is found that even for plants of 4,000 glycerol t/yr, economic indicators such as net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) show that the process is economically viable if the sale price of solketal is higher than 2,400 USD/t. With a solketal selling price of 2,250 USD/t, plants with a minimum capacity of 10,000 glycerol t/yr remain profitable. The sensitivity analysis shows that a reduction in the cost of cooling water required to condense the excess of acetone used in this process is much more critical to the profitability of the project than a longer catalyst useful life.