Sustainable Process Design Approach for On-Purpose Butadiene Production and Intensification

Butadiene is an important feedstock to many industrial products. It is the building block of many synthetic rubber and latex products such as S.B. Latex, Polybutadiene, Styrene-Butadiene-Rubber (SBR), and Nitrile rubber. Butadiene supply shortage due to the shift to lighter feedstock in cracking processes in the petrochemical industry warrants nonconventional routes to producing butadiene. On-purpose butadiene processes have been explored since the beginning of the century, utilizing different chemical and biological feedstocks. However, they have not been scaled up or commercialized due to economical impediment. This project probes process intensification technologies for the on-purpose production of butadiene to improve their sustainability and economics. The project shall yield novel flowsheets of butadiene production utilizing intensifying techniques such as heat integration and mass integration and/or intensifying equipment.