Sustainability evaluation of azelaic acid from techno-economic analysis and environmental life cycle assessment of sustainable azelaic acid production
Kudli, Lavanya Prashantkumar
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120465
Description
Title
Sustainability evaluation of azelaic acid from techno-economic analysis and environmental life cycle assessment of sustainable azelaic acid production
Author(s)
Kudli, Lavanya Prashantkumar
Issue Date
2023-05-05
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Guest, Jeremy S
Department of Study
Civil & Environmental Eng
Discipline
Environ Engr in Civil Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Azelaic acid
techno-economic analysis
life cycle assessment
Abstract
Azelaic acid is a renewable bioproduct and a valuable dibasic monomer with wide ranging
industrial applications including lubricants, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It is produced via
oxidative cleavage of oleic acid derived from vegetable oils such as high oleic sunflower oil. The
conventional approach to achieving oxidative cleavage is an ozone-based process which is energy
intensive and poses a combustion hazard. As an alternative, a recently commercialized process has
demonstrated oxidative cleavage using hydrogen peroxide and oxygen in place of ozone. Further,
it has been demonstrated that continuous oxidative cleavage using hydrogen peroxide and oxygen
can achieve a higher azelaic acid percentage yield as compared to batchwise oxidative cleavage.
However, the financial viability and environmental significance of this process remain unclear,
especially given significant technological and market driven uncertainties that could undermine
commercial feasibility and environmental benefits. In this study, we leverage BioSTEAM – an
open-source platform for the design and evaluation of biorefineries – to perform techno-economic
analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of a hydrogen peroxide and oxygen based
continuous oxidative cleavage method for production of azelaic acid under uncertainty. The
designed process produces market competitive azelaic acid with a minimum product selling price
(MPSP) of $27 per kg of azelaic acid. A sensitivity analysis focused on MPSP was conducted to
understand key drivers of MPSP. We find that the minimum product selling price is most sensitive
to the high oleic sunflower oil feedstock price followed by the hydrogen peroxide price. Since high
oleic sunflower oil is not a bulk commodity, future investigation will focus on using high oleic
soybean as an alternative feedstock.
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