Acrylonitrile from Biomass Still Far from Being a

Authors: Robert K Grasselli Ferruccio Trifirò

Publish Date: 2016/08/10

Volume: 59, Issue: 17-18, Pages: 1651-1658

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Abstract

The production of acrylonitrile from biomass is in its infancy We have reviewed the most pertinent literature in this area and find that the highest yields of acrylonitrile 60  on 5 cc microreactor scale are obtained from glycerol as the biomass derived feed material Unfortunately because glycerol is derived from a foodbiomass source its use for industrial purposes is rather unacceptable to the general public and most governments A more palatable biomass feed derived from nonfood sources would be propionic acid or glutamic acid Unfortunately the acrylonitrile yields achieved thus far from these starting materials are rather miniscule Yet if in the future a biomass based acrylonitrile process were to be desired it will have to be based on nonfood biomass derived feeds Therefore it will be necessary to develop novel catalysts to achieve this desired goal With the price of crude oil being at decade low levels 30–35/barrel it will be a formidable challenge for biobased acrylonitrile processes to compete not to mention replace the world leading SOHIO acrylonitrile ammoxidation process using propylene as feed In excess of 7 billion kg/year of acrylonitrile 1 kg/year for each person on earth are produced worldwide by this process using advanced BiMoOx based catalysts which give acrylonitrile yields of 80+  on commercial scale While not impossible it will require a great deal of scientific and engineering prowess to develop a nonfood biobased acrylonitrile process and it will require a substantial commitment and generous subsidies from interested governments to achieve this desired goal

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