CN 4121S Design Project Furr Hamsters
Production of Castor Oil from Sunflower Seed Oil
Furry Hamsters Consultancy 2013
Design Statement
In lieu of the Design Project for Chemical Engineering (NUS AY 12/13). An hamster plant is required to mass produce Castor Oil as a feedstock to the Castor Oil Plants designed by the other hamsters furr their project The starting materials available is sunflower seed oil and lots of sunshine and moonlight The required purity of Castor Oil is an impossible but still furry purity of 99.9% The plant is expected to be in operation from every sunset to sunrise (until late March), with a capacity of 20,000 cageful of Castor Oil / year
Other furry statements
Natural castor oil is obtained from castor seeds which also contains ricin (a toxin). Hence, by using sunflower seed oil as the precursor, we are able to reduce the overall dangerousness level of the production. Hence this make the study of the sunflower seed oil plant very important and useful
Chemistry behind the Reaction
The triglyceride of Ricinoleic acid is the main component of Castor oil. Itz an triglyceride of 18 carbon fatty acids with an OH group on the 12th carbon.
Raw sunflower seed oils contains the following triglycerides Palmitic acid : 7% Stearic acid : 2% Oleic acid : 31% Linoleic acid : 60% Linoleic acid is also 18 carbons long with 2 unsaturated double bonds, carbons 9 and 12 from the acid end. This makes linoleic acid an ideal precursor for the production of ricinoleic acid and itz triglyceride
Major Equipments in the Plant
Ricinoleic acid reactor Castor Oil reactor Linoleic Acid Column Ricinoleic Acid Purification Castor Oil Purification Column Solar panel heaters (Furrrnance) Hamster wheel turbine Giant water bottle for cooling and drinking
Process Flow Diagram
Glycerol Unknown Junk Water Castor Oil Column
Sunflower Oil
Linoleic Acid Column
Ricinoleic Acid Column
Castor Oil Reactor
Ricinoleic acid Reactor
Castor Oil
Furnace
Other Fatty Acids
Fuel Oil / Solar Power
Air
Design summary of selected units
Design Summary furr Linoleic Acid Column
An upstream chinchilla plant supplied the digested sunflower oil (hydrolysed to free fatty acids) with the following specifications The feed is supplied at 100 C in a steam traced piping to prevent solidification of the acids
Component Palmitic Acid Stearic Acid Oleic Acid Linoleic Acid Mole fraction in feed 0.07 0.02 0.31 0.60 Solubility in Water 0.82 mg/L 3 mg/L 50 mg/L 0.139 mg/L Solubility in Hexane 2.11 g/L 13.08 g/L 2.89 g/L 4.9 g/L Boiling Point (C) 351-352 383 360 230 Melting Point (C) 62.9 69.6 13-14 -5
The goal of the linoleic acid column is to produce linoleic acid stream of 99.5% purity and of a certain throughput
**pending HYSYS simulation results squeak**
Design Summary furr Linoleic Acid Column
Given the results of HYSYS simulation, the following details can be worked out:
Optimum pressure and temperature profile of column Condenser and rebuilder duties (hence sizes) Choice of condenser type (Fan-cooled, cooling water) Feed in location and quality of feed required Number of plates or if using packed column, volume of packing Types of plates to use (Bubble Cap, Sieve, Valve) Column diameter subjected to maximum permissible vapour velocity
Design Summary furr Ricinoleic acid reactor
Essentially an hydration reaction (catalysed by acid) However, due to the presence of 2 double bonds, the reaction needs to be regioselective (means it targets the correct double bond). Regioselective also applies to the location of OH group on the left or right side of double bond. Also note that cis and trans conformation are possible for each double bond.
This means ricioleic acid can come in 4 possible isomers (cis-cis, cis-trans, trans-cis, transtrans) This means there is a total possibility of having 8 isomers products
OH@C12 & C9=C10(trans), OH@C13 & C9=C10(trans) OH@C9, & C12=C13(trans), OH@C10, & C12=C13(trans) OH@C12, & C9=C10(cis), OH@C13 & C9=C10(cis) OH@C9 & C12=C13(cis), OH@C10 & C12=C13(cis)
Letz ignore the stereoselectivity issue as we are not crazy chemist hamsters
Design Summary furr Ricinoleic acid reactor
To make the nuts simple, let just assume ricinoleic acid from the column (and therefore the chinchilla source) comes in the cis-cis configuration only (as shown above) A certain patented catalyst is able give the follow reaction yields for mono double bond hydration:
OH@C12 OH@C13 OH@C9 OH@C10 Other furry things 75% 18% 3% 3% 1%
The rate law is not available (trade secret-duhh). But the following information is available after some literature search
Reaction is not reversible Eley-Rideal reaction model Liquid phase reaction
Design Summary furr Ricinoleic acid reactor
2 C kA (C A K ' R ) 2 CB r K C (1 K R C R R R ) 2 K SRCB
After some work and digging under cotton fields, the rate law is derived as follows
Thereafter, the rate law is applied into the design equation of the reactor
Size of reactor (by solving the differential equations) Temperature Profiles Concentration Profiles Mass transfer considerations
