Techno-economic analysis of a biorenewable route to produce trimellitic acid

Abstract

Present study investigates techno-economic feasibility of trimellitic acid (TMLA) production from a biorenewable precursor 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) for the first time. A 5 kmol/hr HMF feed rate to produce 99% pure TMLA is considered to provide a roadmap for fixing the minimum sales price of TMLA for significant return on investments and a shorter payback period. The current TMLA sales price varies significantly ($10/kg–$1000/kg) in different markets; depending on the process for TMLA production. Thus, techno-economic feasibility study for TMLA production is investigated considering variable sales price. It is also observed that two distinct reaction routes for TMLA production from HMF are possible and both routes can be profitable even at the minimum sales price of $10/kg. Nevertheless, TMLA production from direct conversion of HMF showed better internal rate of return (IRR) (105.94%) than the one calculated for a two-step process (39.42%). It is also observed that catalyst and raw materials costs are main contributing factor in capital and operating costs, respectively. Thus, cost of feed is varied to study the possible future cases, as HMF cost may decrease with advances in the development of biomass conversion technologies. It is observed that the IRR of the TMLA production plant would further increase significantly by ∼16% if raw material cost is reduced by 10–40% in the future.