Synthesis of PeroxYcarboxYlique acids

SYnthesis of PeroxYcarboxYlique acids

LEVENEUR Sébastien^1,2*, SALMI Tapio¹, ESTEL Lionel<sup>2

1</sup>Laboratoire de chimie industrielle et réaction chimique, Académie d’Åbo, Biskopsgatan 8, FI-20500 Åbo/Turku, Finlande.

²Laboratoire des Risques Chimiques et Procédés, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen, Place Emile Blondel, BP 8, 76131 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, France.

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^{*Corresponding author}

Abstract

The environmental impact and safety aspect for the production of chemicals are two main issues to ensure the sustainability of industrial production. In the scale-up of a chemical process, the following topics should be considered:

- purpose of the chemical products synthesized;

- toxicity of these chemicals on human being and environment;

- safety issues;

- technology design and optimisation of the production.

Our efforts were mainly focused on the two last points of the list. The philosophy of “Green Chemistry” was used for the synthesis of peroxypropionic acid (PPA), which encourages the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. The study of peroxycarboxylic acid synthesis and decomposition is a good example of application of “Green Chemistry”.

The aims of this work were to identify the kinetic and thermodynamic parameter for the synthesis of peroxypropionic acid (PPA) from propionic acid (PA) and hydrogen peroxide, to propose a greener alternative route for this synthesis and to study the stability of peroxypropionic acid.

The application of peroxycarboxylic acids is widely used in several manufactures, but rarely as a pure solution. All those applications are based on the oxidative properties of those compounds, due to the chemical bond. Furthermore, the properties of the molecule can be fine-tuned by incorporating of various hydrocarbon groups (-R). This allows the industry to select the proper peroxycarboxylic acid according to the wish of the customer, for instance, stable peroxide with a low oxidative property or unstable peroxide with a strong oxidative property.
The main advantage of these chemicals is their harmless impact on the environment because of the non-toxicity of their decomposition products. Indeed, the decomposition of these compounds yield carbon dioxide, oxygen, water and carboxylic acid. Compared to hydrogen peroxide, peroxycarboxylic acids can be used over a wide temperature range (0-40 °C), wide pH range (3.0-7.5), because of their higher stability.
The following research does not pretend to give a green solution for the whole process of PPA production. Indeed, other aspect should be discussed as the maximization of the atom economy, e.g., elimination of water by azeotropic distillation. However, it gives a first step for green production.