PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA

University of the City of Manila

College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Background of the Study

Soursop is the fruit of Annona muricata, a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree that is
naturalized in the Philippines. Because of its many economic uses and great demand in processing
industry especially in producing guyabano drinks, an expansion is production is projected to meet its
demand. Consequently, the crop is now gaining its prospect in the world market.

According to the Philippines Statistics Office, the nationwide production of soursop is 7,671
metric tons annually. Each guyabano fruit, according to the International Tropical Fruits Network,
contains tightly-packed flesh segments that has a single oval, smooth, hard, black seed 1.25-2 cm long. A
single fruit may contain as little as 12 dozen seeds to more than 200. The seeds contain 45% of a yellow
non-drying oil which is an irritant poison, causing severe eye inflammation (Morton, 2007).

Propylene glycol (also called 1,2-propanediol) is an incredibly versatile compound that is used in
a number of industrial applications that range from transportation and construction to food and
pharmaceutical production. Pharmaceutical grade propylene glycol is used in health-sensitive products
such as food, personal consumer goods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Industrial grade propylene
glycol is an important player in the transportation industry as it is used in aircraft de-icer, antifreeze, and
brake fluid. It is also used in the construction industry as the primary component in unsaturated
polyester resins that are used to make fiberglass reinforced plastics.

The vast number of applications of propylene glycol in the industry translates into a strong
market. Propylene glycol in the Philippine market, according to the UN Comtrade, amounts to an
equivalent of 29,472,959 kilograms in supply and 69,586,207 kilograms in demand.

Because of the great potential of our proposed raw material, guyabano seeds, and the various
application of our proposed product, propylene glycol, the researchers propose the study
Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol Derived from Guyabano (Annona muricata) for the Production of Propylene
Glycol.
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Statement of the Problem

The plantation of guyabano in the Philippines produces around 2301 metric tons of inedible
wastes, 83% of which, are seeds containing the toxic compound annonacin. The total equivalent weight
of the seeds generated by the guyabano industry is approximately 1,917 metric tons (Business Diary
Philippines). The presence of alkaloids annonacin and anomuricin have been reported. A study
suggested a connection between consumption of soursop and atypical forms of Parkinson's disease due
to the very high concentration of annonacin. Moreover, the seed and seed coat of soursop yield
toxicants such as tannin (2.6 mg/100g), phytate (620.5 mg/100g), cyanide (3.7 mg/kg) (Santiago, 2015).

Dr. Alex Schauss, a senior research director at American Institute for Biosocial and Medical
Research Life Sciences, which specializes in toxicological testing, says high concentrations of annonacin
are found in the fruits or seeds of the soursop. This class of polyketides are among the most potent
inhibitors of complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain known in nature, some 50-fold more
potent than the class complex I inhibitor and two times more potent than rotenone in inducing neuronal
death.

(more problem here )

In order to address the problem of utilization of guyabano seeds, the researchers embark to
provide a solution by converting it into a high value added product through the proposed study titled
Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol Derived from Guyabano (Annona muricata) for the Production of Propylene
Glycol.
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

RRL for Process

DRYING

The seeds were then oven dried in an air tight oven at a temperature of 105 degrees celsius for
6 hours, after which they were allowed to cool and weighed. Continuous weighing was carried out at an
interval of 30 minutes, until a steady weight was achieved. The moisture content was afterwards
calculated in wet basis using the following equation;

Where Mc = moisture content (%)

WW =wet weight of sample or the initial weight of sample (g)

DW = dry weight of sample or the final weight of sample (g)

SOURCE: Influence of Moisture Content Variation on the Percentage Oil Yield of Soursop
(Annona muricata) Seeds.

OKORO, Cynthia Kusin

SIZE REDUCTION

The soup sop seeds were dried for a period of three days. The sour sop seeds were cleaned with
distilled water and dried at room temperature. The seeds were grounded with the grinding mill. The
ground sour sop seeds were sieved and were of particle size 0.25 to 0.5 mm. This was to allow for
shorter diffusion path, thus allowing the adsorbate (sour sop seeds) to penetrate deeper into the
effluent more quickly, resulting in a higher rate of adsorption (Adeyinka et al., 2007).
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

SOURCE: The removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions using sour sop seeds as
biosorbent

Oboh, O. I. and Aluyor, E.O.

SOLVENT EXTRACTION

Fifty (kilograms of the dried rubber seeds from three rubber clones viz: RRIM707, G.T.1 and
NIG 800 were decorticated manually to free the kernel from the shell. Five hundred grams of the
kernel each were milled to obtain the particles having an average diameter of 1.16, 1.36, 2.36 and 2.36
mm by using standard methods (ASTM E11). Each of these milled kernels was extracted using a soxhlet
extractor with n-hexane as the solvent. The extraction was carried for four hours at temperature
corresponding to the boiling point of the solvent. The hexane in hexane oil mixture was evaporated in
vacuo using rotary evaporator. The oil was then collected and weighed. The percentage oil yield
was calculated for all treatments using the expression below:

Where, Y is the oil yield (%), Wo is the weight of oil expressed (g) and Wm is the weight of the
sample of milled rubber seed kernel used in the experiments. The extraction of the oil from each of the
clone was carried out for the different particle size.

SOURCE: Considerations of the extraction process and potential technical applications of

Nigerian rubber seed oil

R. O. Ebewele1, A. F. Iyayi2* and F. K. Hymore3

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

TRANSESTERIFICATION

Transesterication of Safower Oil. Experiments were designed to ascertain the effect of

catalyst type and concentration, reaction temperature, oil/methanol ratio, and stirring intensity on the
transesterication of safower oil. The catalysts types were varied as sodium hydroxide, potassium
hydroxide, sodium methoxide, and potassium methoxide. The catalyst (NaOCH3) concentrations were
used as 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25, and 1.50%. The reaction temperatures were opted as 30, 45,
and 60 C. The oil/methanol molar ratio were set as 1:3, 1:6, 1:9, 1:12, 1:15, and 1:18. The stirring
intensity was varied as 180, 360, and 600 rpm.

The transesterication was carried out usinga1Lroundbottomed reactor, equipped with a

thermostat, mechanical stirrer, sampling outlet, and condensation systems. This installation was
consistent with that described in the literature.14,15 Briey, the safower seed oil (500 g) was
preheated to the set temperatures (30, 45, and 60 C) on a heating plate before starting the reaction. A
xed amount of freshly prepared alcoholic solutions of catalysts were added into the oil established for
each experiment and mixed, taking this moment as time zero of the reaction. At consistently spaced
periods, 2 cm3 of the sample was withdrawn for chromatographic analysis. Each experiment was
allowed to prolong for 120 min conduct to ensure the complete conversion of the fatty acids into
FAMEs. 2.5.

Separation and Purication. After the completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was
allowed to cool and equilibrate, resulting in the separation of two phases. The upper phase consisted of
SOME, and the lower phase contained the glycerol, the excess methanol, the remaining catalyst
together with the soaps formed during the reaction, and some entrained methyl esters and partial
glycerides. After separation of the two layers, the upper SOME layer was puried by distilling the
residual methanol at 80 C. The remaining catalyst was removed by successive rinses with distilled
water. Finally, the residual water was eliminated by treatment with Na2SO4, followed by ltration. The
lower phase was acidied with a calculated amount of sulfuric acid, to neutralize any unreacted
potassium hydroxide and decompose the soaps formed during the transesterication. The resulting
mixture was subjected to distillation at 80 C under a moderate vacuum to recover the excess methanol.
This facilitated the separation of glycerol from entrained methyl esters and soaps.
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

SOURCE: Production of Biodiesel through Base-Catalyzed Transesterication of Safower Oil

Using an Optimized Protocol

Umer Rashid and Farooq Anwar

PURIFICATION OF GLYCEROL / DISTILLATION

As the crude glycerol received is solid at room temperature, around 200 g of the crude glycerol
was melted at 55OC in a 500 ml beaker placed on a magnetic hot plate. The molten crude glycerol under
gentle stirring was acidified with different acids (sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and phosphoric acid,
respectively) to a desired pH level and was kept for a
sufficiently long time to allow the formation of three separate
layers. The top layer is fatty acid phase, the middle one is
glycerol rich phase and the bottom one is inorganic slat phase.
The bottom phase was separated by simple decantation. The
fatty acid-rich top phase was separated from the glycerol-rich
phase by using a separator funnel. The extracted glycerol was neutralized using 12 M KOH solution
followed by evaporation of water at 110OC for 2 h and filtration to remove the precipitated salt.

The obtained glycerol was further purified by solvent

extraction process using methanol as solvent to promote the
precipitation of dissolved salts. The precipitated salts were
separated by filtration and passed through a column of activated
charcoal to de-color and remove odor and some metal ions.

SOURCE: Purification of Crude Glycerol using Acidification:

Effects of Acid Types and Product Characterization Nanda MR1, Yuan Z1, Qin W2, Poirier MA3 and
Chunbao X1*

HYDROGENOLYSIS OF GLYCEROL TO POLYPROPYLENE GLYCOL

The refined glycerol from the separation column D-101in S-114 is pumped to 585 psia in P-103
and heated in HX-102 with the reactor vapor effluent, S-123, to 416 F. Hydrogen gas is drawn from a
pipeline at 1000 psig in S-117, and is depressurized in the turbine T-101 to reach the operating pressure,
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

600 psia. This hydrogen stream is mixed with the stream of recycled hydrogen, S-131, to maintain a 5:1
molar ratio of hydrogen to glycerol in S-119. The combined hydrogen stream is heated to process
temperature (416.5 F) by condensing the vapor effluent, S- 126, from the second flash vessel, F-102.

In order to achieve the maximum conversion of glycerol to propylene glycol in a multiphase

system, a trickle-bed reactor was selected. The trickle bed reactor is the simplest reactor type for
performing multiphase catalytic reactions, and is used widely in industry for such applications as liquid-
phase hydrogenation and oxidation of harmful chemicals in waste streams. Trickle-bed reactors are used
industrially for hydrodesulfurization processes, which lends credibility to the use of scale-up from the
bench-scale analysis. The reactor, R-101, consists of a packed bed of solid catalyst particles, over which
streams of gas (S-120) and liquid (S-116) flow down the reactor.

The catalyst that was selected for this process is Cu-ZnO-Al2O3 in a 1:1:0.5 molar ratio of
Cu:Zn:Al, as it was determined to exhibit the best performance for glycerol hydrogenolysis by (Zhou
2010). The catalyst particles that showed optimal performance in studies by Zhou, Li, et al. had a
diameter of 0.17 mm.

The overall goal of this process is to achieve 100% conversion and 98.5% selectivity of the
incoming glycerol to propylene glycol. Based on this specification, it was determined that a mass of 4190
kg of catalyst is necessary. The small diameter of the catalyst pellets allows for the assumption of a void
fraction in the bed of 0.35, a typical value for catalyst pellets of small diameter. 21,000 lb/hr of reactants
are fed to the reactor. Professor Leonard Fabiano suggested the assumption of a flux of 1000 lb/ft2 *hr
through the packed bed, and using this assumption, a 21 ft2 cross section is required to accommodate
the flow. In a cylindrical vessel, this corresponds to a diameter of 5.2 feet. Based on the fluid properties
of the liquid and vapor streams, trickle bed reactor of these dimensions, the Ergun equation can be used
to calculate a pressure drop of 20 psi along the length of the reactor (See Appendix for sample
calculation).

Additionally, a 5:1 molar excess of hydrogen gas must be accounted for in the reactor sizing. At
the operating temperature (455.8 F) and pressure (556 psia), the excess volume of hydrogen is 11,112
ft3 /hr. Assuming a retention time of 1 minute in the vessel, calculated based on the effluent flow rate,
the total volume of the reactor vessel must be 240 ft3 , an increase of almost double the volume for
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
University of the City of Manila
College of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering

stoichiometric reactants of 142 ft3 . Accounting for the hydrogen excess, the new reactor vessel requires
a diameter of 6 ft and height of 11 ft.

SOURCE: Glycerol to Propylene Glycol

Kumar Chatterjee, Kelsey Hall, Samuel Tell