AUTOMATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF GLYCINE SYNTHESIS

Glycine was synthesized in an aqueous medium through ammonolysis of mo nochloroacetic acid with hexamethylenetetramine as a catalyst, The aut omation of the process was performed on a laboratory scale with the Lo gilap(R) system, This system allowed to optimize the influence of temp erature and pH on the yield of the reaction. Research on the optimum y ield was carried out using the experimental design method. The first-o rder design was not suitable but the second-order design allowed to ca lculate the best conditions for obtaining the optimum yield from exper imental results. The correlation design and the three-dimensional spac e diagram led us to infer that a yield superior to 93% could be obtain ed when the reaction was achieved with a temperature varying between 7 3 and 78 degrees C and a pH range of 5.1-5.6. These optimum yields wer e then experimentally verified on a larger amount of reagents.