This Thursday 14 and Friday 15 March final year undergraduates from the Department of Chemical Engineering will present their process solutions to their final year design projects.
Day 1: 14th March 2019 (2pm – 5pm)
14:00 – 15:00 Teams 1 and 2: “Carbon fibres from bottom of the barrel”
Vacuum residues are the heaviest of the distillation cuts. They are, literally, the bottom of the barrel. Vacuum residues are the bottoms cut from the vacuum distillation tower (approx. 25%). If not upgraded, vacuum residues are blended into either residual fuel oil or asphalt. Alternatively, vacuum residues can be upgraded to yield light products through coking, visbreaking and hydrocracking. The world capacity of vacuum refining technology is approximately 30M b/cd. As world crudes are becoming heavier this fraction is ever increasing. It is also in this fraction that hetero-atoms such as Sulphur, Nickel and Vanadium accumulate and thereby pose an increasing challenge to the refiner. Carbon fibres are currently derived from two main sources, namely PAN (polyacrylonitril) and (meso-phase) pitch. Meso-phase pitch can be derived from a number of residues in the petroleum and coal industry. Within the next couple of years it is expected that the industrial market for carbon fibres will increase to 150,800 MT per annum. But there are already a large number of companies ready to serve this market and IP will be key to achieving a leading role whilst at the same time driving down cost.
The aim of the teams is therefore to develop a continuous process to convert vacuum residues to meso-phase pitch and ultimately carbon fibres and, in doing so, to offer a step change in carbon fibre production capacity and cost.
15:00 – 16:00 Teams 3 and 4: “Green Steel”
The steel industry is one of the highest carbon dioxide emitting industries, accounting for up to 7% of global emissions. The reduction reactions in ironmaking represent around 85 to 90% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in the ore-based steelmaking value chain. An estimated 2.1 tonnes of CO2 are emitted per tonne of crude steel produced (typical steel plant in Western Europe). What are the options to decarbonise this process and how far can they be taken? The world is currently awash with natural gas. There is also an ever increasing market for renewable (electrical) power with associated growth in capacity. Both offer the opportunity for hydrogen production. Natural gas can be processed for hydrogen production using pyrolysis to form hydrogen and carbon; alternatively chemical looping can be deployed to allow production (and capture of pure CO2 streams). Electrical power can be used directly to electrolyse water for co-current hydrogen and oxygen production. In all cases hydrogen would substitute for CO in a direct reduction process to produce pig iron from pellets followed by arc melting with scrap addition.
The aim of the teams is to develop a “green” steel manufacturing process designed to produce steel with a significantly reduced carbon footprint (>50%).
16:00 – 17:00 Teams 5 and 6: “1,4-Butanediol Manufacturing Process”
1,4-Butanediol is a large volume chemical with a global market approaching two million tons per year. It is used in a large number of products, ranging from automotive plastics and electronics, to sneakers, soccer balls, and Spandex for apparel. As outlined to the right, BDO is a key intermediate in the production of co-polymers but also of tetrahydrofuran (THF). The global BDO market size was valued at US$ 6.19 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 7.7% from 2016 to 2025.BASF is the world’s largest producer of BDO and its derivatives. Whilst most of its production capacity is based on Reppe chemistry, BASF has also produced its first commercial volumes of BDO from renewable raw material in 2013. This has been offered to customers for testing and commercial use. That production process relies on a patented fermentation technology from Genomatica, based in California and uses dextrose as a renewable feedstock. In addition to the above processes, Davy Process Technology have developed a process based on maleic anhydride and Mitsubishi Chemical Industries have developed a process based on butadiene. A propylene oxide based process has been developed by Lyondellbasell Industries.Being a key intermediate, BDO cannot easily be substituted (however, it does have certain pharmaco-active properties and is therefore prohibited in the manufacture of personal care products and toys…).
The aim of the teams is to develop a continuous process to produce 1,4-Butanediol (BDO), evaluate the various feedstock platforms available whilst also considering the fossil based nature of the product.
Day 2: 15th March 2019 (2pm – 5pm)
14:00 – 15:00 Teams 7 and 8 “Waste Plastics to Chemicals”
Our ability to create plastic materials at low cost means that their use is ubiquitous in a huge range of different products, and currently around 245 million tons of plastics are produced annually. In the final episode of Blue Planet 2, Sir David Attenborough took a gritty look at the impact of human activity on marine life. With this he delivered a powerful call for humans to do more for the protection of the environment. As chemical engineers we are well posed to provide solutions to this global challenge. Clearly, the most appropriate action would be to avoid single-use plastics altogether or at least only to employ bio-degradable materials in that context. The second best option is to provide an end-of-pipe solution, whereby plastics are collected and repurposed. With the accumulation of waste plastics across the world it will be desirable to develop a modular processing system to be able to tackle waste deposits/streams in a number of countries.
The aim of the teams is to develop a process to transform waste plastics into storable chemicals, whereby, in simple terms, non-recyclable plastics are sorted/graded, size reduced, gasified and ultimately transformed into a storable chemical.
15:00 – 16:00 Teams 9 and 10 “LiPF6 production plant”
“Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy through increasingly affordable electric vehicles and energy products. To ramp production to 500,000 cars per year, Tesla alone will require today’s entire worldwide supply of lithium-ion batteries. The Tesla Gigafactory was born out of necessity and will supply enough batteries to support Tesla’s projected vehicle demand…” – so much for Tesla’s vision. A second Gigafactory is planned in Europe and there is intense competition among European countries to host this factory. In 2018, the total supply of lithium is expected to reach 285,000 metric tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Some forecasts estimate that demand for LCEs will reach 1.1 Mmtpa by the end of 2030 due to the sharp increase of electric vehicles (EVs). Increase in battery demand will be a strong driver of lithium consumption in the near future and mining activities will increase as a result. For example, Chile’s new president, Sebastian Piñera, is taking a pro-economic stance and has started cutting mining restrictions. Although a large number of Lithium ion battery designs exist, the most common aprotic electrolyte employed is LiPF6. This means that a substantial amount of electrolyte will be needed to feed the proposed Gigafactories. Global output of lithium battery electrolyte was about 150,000 tons in 2016 with a price of US$43,000/t, representing a growth of over 35% from 2015. It is a strategic decision to situate the new LiPF6 production facility in Europe.
The aim of the teams is therefore to design a continuous process to contribute to the growing demand for that electrolyte.
16:00 – 17:00 Teams 11 and 12 “Lapatinib in South Africa”
Common epithelial cancer rates are rising in sub-Saharan Africa and breast cancer rates in South Africa (SA) are among the highest in Africa (with 1 in 5 deaths). In general, African women suffer from a disproportionate number of poor prognosis tumours with 26% of all cases in SA showing positive HER2 status. The discovery of HER2 targeted therapy has revolutionised the management of this disease, however, the cost of drugs remains unaffordable for the majority of the population. The small molecule API, Lapatinib, is a tyrosine kinase and epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor. It received FDA approval in 2010 for the treatment of HER2 metastatic breast cancer. It is currently only available in the private sector in SA. However its patent expires in 2019/20. Local API manufacture in SA is virtually non-existent and the pharmaceutical industry is mainly import driven thus being the 5th largest contributor to trade deficit ($1.5B, 2016). Considering that ca. 37% of the total pharmaceutical market value is derived from APIs, only 2.3% of APIs are locally produced. This means that SA is reliant on Asian imports for many critical drugs. More recently, drug shortages have been experienced and there is a deepening concern in the country over drug quality and counterfeiting (quality-related plant shutdowns in India/China).
It is therefore the aim of the teams to help develop a local API infrastructure in SA (within the framework of various global challenge initiatives) by designing and demonstrating an exemplar process for the continuous manufacture of Lapatinib.