Coupling Process Intensification and Systems Flowsheeting for Economic and Environmental Analysis of 5-Hydroxymethyl Furfural Modular Microreactor Plants

This work evaluates process intensification technologies, microreactors, and adsorption beds, in the production of HMF. The study is performed by developing a flowsheeting capability that accounts for heat and mass transfer in the reactor to allow for comparison of different scales at the design stage. The framework helps provide a detailed description of the reactor across scales and obtain more reliable economic and environmental results. These results show that scaling up the process by means of microreactor modules reduces the minimum selling price by at least 10% and the emissions by at least 5% compared to conventional reactors. The recovery of HMF by adsorption beds instead of vacuum distillation reduces the minimum selling price between 10 and 50% and the CO2 emissions up to 40%.