2021 Senior Projects Conference

Economic Optimization and Hazard Analysis of p-Aminophenol Production

The U.S. drug global supply chain is an area that has received the attention of the federal government in recent years for a variety of reasons1. On February 12, 2020, the former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb raised the alarm of potential impacts of COVID-19 on the drug supply chain to a U.S. Senate Committee on homeland security2. In July of 2020, India published a list of 53 key starting materials (KSM) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that they wanted to produce domestically. P-aminophenol was one KSM identified in this document and is used to manufacture acetaminophen (paracetamol).

Louisiana Tech Chemical Engineering students were asked to design a process that produced 30,000 metric tons per year of p-aminophenol from commodity chemicals. The kinetics were justified from literature data. The system was modeled using the process simulator ChemCAD and priced using cost equations from Turton, Shaeiwitz, Bhattacharyya, and Whiting (2018). Topological and parametric optimizations were explored along with different chemical routes to the product. The recycle streams increased the complexity of the simulator significantly but were required to accurately model the system. Process hazards will be identified and suggestions to mitigate hazards will be presented.

1. “Securing the U.S. Drug Supply Chain: Oversight of FDA’s Foreign Inspection Program”, House Committee on Energy & Commerce, December 10, 2019.

2. “Roundtable: Are We Prepared? Protecting the U.S. from Global Pandemics”, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, February 12, 2020.

Room 212 Session: Join us on Zoom.

Room 214 Session: Join us on Zoom.