CHE.07 – Production of D,L Methionine

• Anna Christensen
• Paul Diaz
• Victor Nieto
• Mustafa Soniwala
• Joey Wilczynski

D, L- Methionine is 1 of 9 essential amino acids used in the animal feed, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries. Methionine is most often purchased for poultry feed. The objective of this project is to produce 150,000 metric tons of food grade D, L -Methionine(99wt%) for animal consumption. Our plant will be in Iowa near the largest number of consumers of animal feed, as well as raw material suppliers. The chosen process for our plant is centered around the Carbonate process which uses ammonia, HCN, methional, and water as a raw material. The Carbonate process is ideal since it does not require the use of bacteria to produce methionine and has higher purity than the competing hydroxy analog process. The chosen process is preferred since it allows for high production of pure D, L-Methionine along with the ability to recycle most of the raw material being fed. The five main stages in the process consist of Hydantoin formation, Hydantoin hydrolysis, D, L – methionine production via acidification, D, L- methionine filtering and drying, and potassium carbonate regeneration. For our plant, the revenue will end up being $289 million per year, with a fixed cost of $6.8 million per year and a variable cost of $215 million. The net present value after 20 years is $155 million. The plant is profitable because multiple of our raw materials, such as ammonia and carbon dioxide, are recycled. This lowers the cost of production, allowing for a larger gross profit. Commercially a similar process is utilized by Evonik industries located in Georgia. Overall, the carbonate process was chosen since it was challenging and encompassed many of the topics covered in the chemical engineering curriculum at UIC.