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A Continuous Reactive Distillation Process for Citric Acid Esterification (see 04026)

Detailed Technology Description

Introduction Depletion of fossil fuel resources, coupled with heightened awareness of environmental and health concerns, is providing impetus to search for alternative materials that are biocompatible, biodegradable, and based on renewable resources.  Organic acids produced by fermentation of carbohydrate feedstocks constitute an important class of biorenewable platform chemicals that can be further converted to useful products. Tri-ethyl citrate, produced from citric acid and ethanol, is a non-toxic, biocompatible plasticizer that can be used in place of petroleum-based phthalate compounds. Phthalates have potential carcinogeneity and overall health concerns to the extent that they have been banned in Europe from use in children's toys and human contact applications. The potential application of tri-ethyl citrate as a plasticizer is currently limited by the lack of large-scale, efficient, and economic production facilities.  Description of Technology This technology is a continuous process for the formation of triethyl citrate using cationic exchange resins as catalysts in a reactive distillation column.  Triethyl citrate is a non-toxic, water-soluble, biocompatible plasticizer that could be used instead of petroleum-based phthalate compounds that are potential carcinogens.  Key BenefitsContinuous process, Economical, scale-able processReaction conditions are relatively modestGreen, non-toxic raw material  ApplicationsBioplastics Food additive PlasticizerHumectantFragrance carrier  Patent Status US patent: US7,667,068 Inventors Navinchandra Asthana, Dennis Miller, Aspi Kolah, Carl Lira, Dung Vu Tech ID  TEC2006-0064

*Abstract

None

*Principal Investigator

Name: Navinchandra Asthana, Research Associate

Department: Chemical Engineering & Materials Science

Name: Dennis Miller, Professor

Department: Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Name: Aspi Kolah, Assistant Professor

Department: Chemical Engineering & Materials Science

Name: Carl Lira, Associate Professor

Department: Chemical Engineering

Name: Dung Vu

Department:

Country/Region

USA