BackgroundAcrolein is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It is a colorless liquid with a penetrating, unpleasant, acrid odor. The smell of burning fat (such as when cooking oil is heated to smoking point) is caused by the breakdown of glycerol in the burned fat into acrolein. It is industrially produced from propylene and used primarily as a biocide and building block for other chemical compounds, such as the amino acid methionine. Acrolein is an important intermediate for numerous substances. The primary use of isolated commercial acrolein is currently the production of D,L methion, an essential amino acid used as an animal feed supplement. Demand for methionine is expected to grow 5% annually through 2004 and the animal feed market is expected to reach $911 million by 2005. Acrolein is also used as an intermediate in the production of acrylic acid. Acrylic acid is an important intermediate used as a precursor for a wide variety of chemicals in the textile and polymer industries. Additionally, acrolein is used as an antimicrobial agent to protect process piping and is added as an additive to liquid fuels against microbes. As the demand for these products grows, a profit will be made. From review of the literature, there are few processes available to produce acrolein. Among these processes, some are not commercially important to apply in industries. Today, acrolein is produced on a large commercial scale by heterogeneously catalyzed gas-phase oxidation of propylene. For this design project, the partial oxidation of propylene route was selected for the production of acrolein. The propylene oxidation process is attractive due to the use of highly active and selective catalysts in the process. A product with high purity can be obtained with ... half the paper ...... desired product purity of acrolein, xD = 0.98 Raw materials • Propylene – 95% purity • Propane – 5% • Air – N2 – 78.084%- O2 – 20.948% Constraints • Propylene is dangerous and particular attention must be paid to the composition of the hydrocarbons – oxygen in the feed mixture • Possibility of operating outside the explosive limit • If operating within the explosive limit, the possibility of adding thinners as steam• Storage of large quantities of acrylic acid which can polymerize with the release of large amounts of heat (acrylic acid dimerizes at a temperature above 90°C)Physical properties of all components• Information about this can be obtained as in the Perry Chemical Engineering Handbook or Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each component. Information regarding the safety, toxicity and environmental impact of the material involved in the process • MSDS