Potassium tert-butoxide powder to packing under nitrogen

Activity Potassium tert-butoxide from potassium and dry tert-butanol, semi-batch with alcohol strip and vacuum drying (1000 t/a), GLO: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedpotassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBUPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset

Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Unallocated foreground LCI of Potassium tert-butoxide from potassium and dry tert-butanol by semi-batch, alcohol strip and vacuum drying, case design, derived from the flowsheet by cheme assess lca.

Reference product: 1 kilogram of Potassium tert-butoxide powder to packing under nitrogen (1.01325 bar(a), 40 degC, 99.0951 % KOTBU (mole))
Chemical: potassium-tert-butoxide
CAS: 865-47-4
Code: potassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBU
Dataset: potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying version 0.1.0 · UUID e95b5d9c-4d56-5aa9-bd43-16b2e6812d25
Activity UUID: not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database: cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process: Potassium tert-butoxide from potassium and dry tert-butanol, semi-batch with alcohol strip and vacuum drying (1000 t/a)
Geography: GLO · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period: 2026 · valid until 2031
Technology: Batch plant: molten potassium dosed over 3 h into 8.6 mol of dry tert-butanol per mol at 348 K (semi-batch), the hydrogen vented as it forms through a vent condenser at 308 K to the flare; the alkoxide solution stripped at atmospheric pressure in a batch still down to the 1:1 solvate and the paste vacuum-dried at 433 K in a paddle dryer on MP steam; the alcohol recycled (0.5 % purged); the make-up, tert-butanol of the azeotrope grade, dried on a vapour-phase 3A molecular sieve; 831.6 kg per batch, 1202 batches a year on a dedicated train · level current
Boundary: gate-to-gate foreground of the plant
Production volume: 999,995 kg/a (product:KOTBU per hour x operation.hours_per_year (7920 h/a))
Classification: ISIC Rev.4 2011 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model: attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation: mass, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights: CC-BY-4.0: the ChemE-as-Code process library's own concept design (LICENSE-DATA)

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Potassium tert-butoxide powder to packing under nitrogen

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 10 assumed, 2 calculated. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary4 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.

Input	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree	Linked to
Potassium metal (merchant) feed:K flowsheet stream S1 (D-004) From stream S1	0.3482	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'potassium'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
tert-Butanol, azeotrope grade, the alcohol contained (tert-butanol-1) feed:TBAF flowsheet stream S3, the tert-butanol the azeotrope grade contains (D-004) From stream S3	0.7342	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas (pinned): tert-Butanol by direct hydration of isobutene over an acidic ion-exchange resin (tert-Butanol (2-methylpropan-2-ol), tert-Butanol (TBA contained), GLO) compatible: grade the input names tert-butanol only; tert-butanol (tert-Butanol (2-methylpropan-2-ol), tert-Butanol (TBA contained)) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Water of the azeotrope grade (with the tert-butanol of tert-butanol-1) feed:TBAW flowsheet stream S4 (D-004) From stream S4	0.09785	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	market for water, deionised (water, deionised, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Electric power feed:POWER flowsheet energy streams P1 (R-101 agitator), P2 (C-101 agitator), P3 (DR-101's paddle drive and vacuum pump) and P4 (the sieve's regeneration heater and blower), D-009 electricity From streams P1, P2, P3, P4	0.3252	kilowatt hour	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
LP steam 350 kPa(a) (R-101 heat-up, the still, the potassium melter, the sieve's evaporator, tank heating) feed:LPS flowsheet energy streams Q1 (R-101's charge warmed), Q4 (the still's reboiler), Q9 (potassium melting), Q10 (the sieve's evaporator) and Q14 (tank and line heating), D-009 steam, LP, 138.85 degC, 3.5 bar(a) From streams Q1, Q4, Q9, Q10, Q14	1.188	kilowatt hour	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
MP steam 1000 kPa(a) (the dryer DR-101) feed:MPS flowsheet energy stream Q6 (the paddle dryer DR-101), D-008, D-009 steam, MP, 179.85 degC, 10 bar(a) From stream Q6	0.3573	kilowatt hour	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
Vent gas (hydrogen with tert-butanol vapour) to the site flare product:FLARE flowsheet stream S23: R-101's vent S11 and the dryer bleed's alcohol S20 (D-006, D-008) From stream S23	0.0509	kilogram	calculated	3 4 1 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Alcohol purge to solvent incineration product:WSOLV flowsheet stream S22 (D-007, D-010) From stream S22	0.02489	kilogram	calculated	3 4 1 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Sieve regeneration condensate to wastewater treatment product:WW flowsheet stream S7 (D-004, D-010) From stream S7	0.1045	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas (plant): wastewater to treatment, per kg (Atlas unit proxy) (wastewater, by mass, GLO) compatible: grade the input names wastewater only; wastewater (Wastewater treated) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)
Tempered water return (closed loop on the site's cooling water) product:CW flowsheet energy streams Q2 (the heat of reaction, R101's model), Q3 (R-101's vent condenser, R101's model), Q5 (the still's condenser, ST101's model), Q7 (product cooling), Q8 (the dryer's vapour condenser with the vacuum pump's heat), Q11 and Q12 (the sieve's product and regeneration condensers) and Q13 (the recycle cooler), D-009 cold, 30 degC From streams Q2, Q3, Q5, Q7, Q8, Q11, Q12, Q13	1.774	kilowatt hour	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas (plant): cooling water service, per kWh heat rejected (Atlas screening proxy) (heat rejected to cooling water, GLO) compatible: grade the input names cooling-water only; cooling-water (Heat rejected to cooling water, 25/35 degC) is taken; unit kilowatt hour; carrier cold, 30 degC from cold, 25 degC; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)
Nitrogen for inerting R-101, blanketing C-101 and the tanks, pressing the potassium, the dryer's bleed and vacuum breaks and the vent header's purge consumable:nitrogen about 76.5 Nm3 per batch x 1.2506 kg/Nm3, ASSUMED (D-012): R-101 purged with 3 volumes of its 10 m3 (30 Nm3); C-101 blanketed as it fills and empties (10 Nm3); DR-101's bleed during the drying (10 Nm3, which carries the alcohol S20 to the flare, D-008) and two vacuum breaks of its 3.15 m3 (6.3 Nm3); V-102's potassium pressed into R-101 (2 Nm3); the vent header to the flare purged at 2 Nm3/h over the 6.586 h cycle (13.2 Nm3); T-101 and T-201 blanketed (5 Nm3); 95.7 kg per batch x 1202.5 batches in 7920 h (process/recipe.yaml, case design, bottleneck REACT)	0.1151	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	Atlas (pinned): Cryogenic air separation unit (500 t/d GOX) (Nitrogen, gaseous, <= 10 ppm O2, 8 barg, GLO) compatible: grade the input names nitrogen only; nitrogen/gan-8barg-10ppm (Nitrogen, gaseous, <= 10 ppm O2, 8 barg) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation exergy (physical-exergy); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Disposal: Nitrogen for inerting R-101, blanketing C-101 and the tanks, pressing the potassium, the dryer's bleed and vacuum breaks and the vent header's purge (through the vent header to the site flare, unchanged (D-012)) disposal:consumable.nitrogen the nitrogen leaves with the vent gas S23 (D-012)	0.1151	kilogram	assumed	4 4 1 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges

Elementary flows

No elementary flows are exported for this activity (pass-through emissions and free inputs are left out, see the caveats).

The streams are the plant's own flows: an amount here is allocated and per 1 kilogram of Potassium tert-butoxide powder to packing under nitrogen, so it differs from the stream's flow, and it can sum several streams.

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/potassium-tert-butoxide-1/lca/dataset.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

Used by

Di-tert-butyl dicarbonate, Boc2O melt to heated storage di-tert-butyl-dicarbonate-1:di-tert-butyl-dicarbonate-by-semi-batch-carbonation-and-phosgenation-of-potassium-tert-butoxide-in-hexane:product:BOC

How good it is

Review

Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet

Data quality

DQR 2.33 · PEF-style DQR 2.71

TeR 3 · GeR 3 · TiR 1 · P 3.83 · C 4 · weakest TeR · primary data 0 %

Mass and carbon closure

Assessed (lca/manifest.json balance, tolerance 5 %: design maturity concept (sourced screening))

lci-carbon-origin: not-assessable
lci-element-balance: not-assessable
lci-mass-balance: closed

element balance not assessable: no composition for consumable:nitrogen (no composition), disposal:consumable.nitrogen (no composition)
carbon balance not assessable: no composition for consumable:nitrogen (no composition), disposal:consumable.nitrogen (no composition)

Change report

Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

KPI	Value	Reference range	Position
Potassium metal consumption per kg of potassium tert-butoxide No open source with a plant's potassium use per kg of potassium tert-butoxide found (searched 2026-11-06: Google Patents US 4 577 045 A, US 5 053 560 A and US 6 150 569 A read, the KOH and amalgam routes, the metal route only as prior art without figures; Organic Syntheses Coll. Vol. 4, 132 and Coll. Vol. 5, 1060 read, laboratory preparations used in situ without a yield of the isolated alkoxide; Wikipedia, Potassium tert-butoxide, the route without figures). The stoichiometric floor is 0.3484 kg/kg (K + tert-butanol -> KOtBu + 1/2 H2), a limit, not a range of real plants.	– kg/kg	not available	not evaluated
tert-Butanol consumption per kg of potassium tert-butoxide No open source with a plant's tert-butanol use per kg of potassium tert-butoxide found (searched 2026-11-06, the sources named under kotbu-specific-potassium; US 4 577 045 A says the alcohol is recycled almost completely, without a figure). The stoichiometric floor is 0.6606 kg/kg; the losses to the vent, the purge and the sieve's regeneration are this design's ASSUMED values (potassium-tert-butoxide-1, DESIGN.md D-006, D-007).	– kg/kg	not available	not evaluated

How to use it

Downloads

cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx · bw2io ExcelImporter workbook (bw2io 0.9 Excel layout) · the whole database
code potassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBU
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-olca-jsonld.zip · openLCA JSON-LD (olca-schema) (2) · the whole database
process e95b5d9c-4d56-5aa9-bd43-16b2e6812d25 (processes/e95b5d9c-4d56-5aa9-bd43-16b2e6812d25.json)
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-multifunctional.json · Brightway 2.5 multifunctional database (JSON, for the multifunctional package) (cheme-as-code/lci-multifunctional/v1) · the whole database
code potassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBU
cheme_as_code_lci-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl · the installer

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4", "potassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBU"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Potassium tert-butoxide powder to packing under nitrogen, from Potassium tert-butoxide from potassium and dry tert-butanol, semi-batch with alcohol strip and vacuum drying (1000 t/a) (dataset potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity potassium-tert-butoxide-1:potassium-tert-butoxide-from-potassium-and-dry-tert-butanol-by-semi-batch-alcohol-strip-and-vacuum-drying:product:KOTBU. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-a3c52e4.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX

@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. arXiv:2611.07947. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947

BibTeX

@misc{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering}},
  year = {2026},
  eprint = {2611.07947},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07947}
}