Conceptual design of glycerol etherification processes

Abstract The feasibility of an industrial-scale, acid-catalyzed process for etherification of glycerol with i-butene is analyzed. A simplified mass balance of the process is derived using a kinetic model for the reactor and black-box model for the separation section. Sensitivity analysis of the steady state model shows that the system exhibits both state multiplicity and regions where no solution exists. The nominal operating point is chosen to avoid high sensitivity to disturbances and to guarantee feasibility when operation and design parameters are uncertain. The stability and robustness in operation are checked by rigorous dynamic simulation.