Structural changes of sinapic acid and sinapine bisulfate during autoclaving with respect to the development of colored substances

Structural changes in sinapic acid during autoclaving were studied using spectral analysis, thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and mass spectroscopy. Color properties of sinapic acid and its derivatives were studied by determining the transmittance spectrum, calculating the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage 1931 tristimulus values and converting to Hunter L a b values. It was found that the colorless sinapic acid aqueous solution (100 μg/mL) turned yellow after 15 min in an autoclave at 121°C and 0.1 MPa. Filtering the yellow aqueous solution through a 0.45-μm filter removed a brown solid consisting of at least three undetermined colored substances and left a yellow liquid. A newly developed yellow substance, syringaldehyde, was identified in the liquid phase by comparing the NMR and mass spectra of the unknown with those of authentic syringaldehyde. Thomasidioic acid was also found in the liquid phase. Under the same autoclaving conditions, sinapine bisulfate showed no evidence of any structural or color changes.     

Progress in the research and development of p-xylene liquid phase oxidation process

The process of p-xylene liquid phase oxidation to produce purified terephthalic acid (PTA) involves a series of liquid phase radical reactions, chemical absorption, reactive crystallization, and evaporation. A commercial PTA production flow sheet includes a number of unit operations, which construct a complex process system. In this paper, a review of research and development (R&D) works on PTA process carried out in Zhejiang University during recent years is introduced. The works cover the oxidation and crystallization kinetics, gas-liquid mass transfer and evaporation, reactor modeling, database development, novel reactor design, process modeling, simulation, and optimization. The author emphasizes the viewpoint through this case study that chemical reaction engineering should be developed to process system engineering to extend its scope, and particular attention should be paid on reactor and process modeling.