Sustainability evaluation of azelaic acid from techno-economic analysis and environmental life cycle assessment of sustainable azelaic acid production

Azelaic acid is a renewable bioproduct and a valuable dibasic monomer with wide ranging industrial applications including lubricants, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It is produced via oxidative cleavage of oleic acid derived from vegetable oils such as high oleic sunflower oil. The conventional approach to achieving oxidative cleavage is an ozone-based process which is energy intensive and poses a combustion hazard. As an alternative, a recently commercialized process has demonstrated oxidative cleavage using hydrogen peroxide and oxygen in place of ozone. Further, it has been demonstrated that continuous oxidative cleavage using hydrogen peroxide and oxygen can achieve a higher azelaic acid percentage yield as compared to batchwise oxidative cleavage. However, the financial viability and environmental significance of this process remain unclear, especially given significant technological and market driven uncertainties that could undermine commercial feasibility and environmental benefits. In this study, we leverage BioSTEAM – an open-source platform for the design and evaluation of biorefineries – to perform techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of a hydrogen peroxide and oxygen based continuous oxidative cleavage method for production of azelaic acid under uncertainty. The designed process produces market competitive azelaic acid with a minimum product selling price (MPSP) of $27 per kg of azelaic acid. A sensitivity analysis focused on MPSP was conducted to understand key drivers of MPSP. We find that the minimum product selling price is most sensitive to the high oleic sunflower oil feedstock price followed by the hydrogen peroxide price. Since high oleic sunflower oil is not a bulk commodity, future investigation will focus on using high oleic soybean as an alternative feedstock.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Environ Engr in Civil Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kudli, Lavanya Prashantkumar

Contributors dc:contributor

• Guest, Jeremy S

• Azelaic Acid
• Techno-economic Analysis
• Life Cycle Assessment

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Lavanya Kudli

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120465

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120465