Year: 2015-16
Company: Technip
Liaison(s): Cheryl Sandifer Eric Wagner
Technip is a leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm in the energy and petrochemical industries. The company was founded in 1958 in France, currently operates in 45 countries, and employs 34,400 associates. Technip earned revenues in excess of €12.2 billion in 2015, with €987 million in operating income from recurring activities. Although Technip Group has extensive fermentation and bioscience expertise and technologies, the local office in Claremont, California, focuses on petrochemical, ethylene, hydrogen, and syngas production. Technip Claremont is assessing the potential of the “green” chemistry market with the intent to add new technologies and capabilities to its existing EPC portfolio. The 2014-15 Technip Claremont TMP team identified leading third-party organizations with biological technologies that operate in the “green” manufacturing space. Verdezyne Inc.’s dodecanedioic acid (DDDA) process was ultimately selected for in-depth review for the 2015-16 TMP. Verdezyne is an industrial biotechnology company focused on producing bio-based chemicals from renewable feedstocks by utilizing a yeast fermentation production platform. Overall, the current TMP sought to create and demonstrate a proof-of-concept process to further develop the Technip Claremont-Verdezyne-KGI relationship. The primary aim of this project was to model the Verdezyne process for the manufacture of DDDA, an intermediate for the manufacture of nylon and other polymers. Commercially available process modeling tools, i.e. Aspen® and SuperPro®, were identified for the task. Early results confirmed the suitability of SuperPro Designer, which then was used to setup the final model. The simulation results were benchmarked successfully with Verdezyne’s small scale DDDA process and the model was used to perform mass and energy balances, sensitivity analysis, and production scheduling. Additionally, the team performed a capital and operating cost analysis of Verdezyne’s process for its future commercial-scale plant. This cost analysis included the cost of equipment, raw materials, and utilities. Together, the process model and cost analysis were used to perform a comparative study between the “green” and petrochemical process routes of producing DDDA. Results and recommendations of the work were communicated to Technip Claremont and Verdezyne through regular meetings, formal presentations and a final report. Completion of this project will increase Technip Claremont’s knowledge of industrial biotechnology in green chemistry. This will allow Technip Claremont to make informed strategic decisions regarding potential future opportunities in green chemistry manufacturing