Design and optimization of the levulinic acid recovery process from lignocellulosic biomass

Nhien, Le Cao; Long, Nguyen Van Duc; Lee, Moonyong

doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2015.09.013

Cited by 43 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…Meanwhile, in the purification part, removing a large quantity of water by distillation is very energy intensive because of the presence of a heterogeneous azeotrope between furfural and water (35.46 wt% furfural) [4, 5]. Note that this process is still used to produce approximately 80% of the furfural supply on today’s world market because of its low capital investment, easy implementation, and inexpensive raw materials [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-economic assessment of hybrid extraction and distillation processes for furfural production from lignocellulosic biomass

Nhien

Long

Kim

et al. 2017

Biotechnol Biofuels

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BackgroundLignocellulosic biomass is one of the most promising alternatives for replacing mineral resources to overcome global warming, which has become the most important environmental issue in recent years. Furfural was listed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as one of the top 30 potential chemicals arising from biomass. However, the current production of furfural is energy intensive and uses inefficient technology. Thus, a hybrid purification process that combines extraction and distillation to produce furfural from lignocellulosic biomass was considered and investigated in detail to improve the process efficiency. This effective hybrid process depends on the extracting solvent, which was selected based on a comprehensive procedure that ranged from solvent screening to complete process design.ResultsVarious solvents were first evaluated in terms of their extraction ability. Then, the most promising solvents were selected to study the separation feasibility. Eventually, processes that used the three best solvents (toluene, benzene, and butyl chloride) were designed and optimized in detail using Aspen Plus. Sustainability analysis was performed to evaluate these processes in terms of their energy requirements, total annual costs (TAC), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The results showed that butyl chloride was the most suitable solvent for the hybrid furfural process because it could save 44.7% of the TAC while reducing the CO2 emissions by 45.5% compared to the toluene process. In comparison with the traditional purification process using distillation, this suggested hybrid extraction/distillation process can save up to 19.2% of the TAC and reduce 58.3% total annual CO2 emissions. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of the feed composition and its effect on the performance of the proposed hybrid system was conducted.ConclusionsButyl chloride was found to be the most suitable solvent for the hybrid extraction/distillation process of furfural production. The proposed hybrid sequence was more favorable than the traditional distillation process when the methanol fraction of the feed stream was <3% and more benefit could be obtained when that fraction decreased.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-economic assessment of hybrid extraction and distillation processes for furfural production from lignocellulosic biomass

Nhien

Long

Kim

et al. 2017

Biotechnol Biofuels

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“…It is assumed that other hexoses (mannose and galactose) are converted to LA at the same rate . This process generates FA, furfural, and acetic acid as byproducts . To simplify the analysis, the concentrations of FA and furfural were considered to be similar and the acetic acid concentration was considered to be negligible .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This liquid stream, together with furfural, is introduced into the extractor to generate an aqueous phase (top stream) and a solvent phase containing mainly LA, FA, and furfural (bottom stream). It is supposed that LA and FA are completely extracted in the solvent phase . The solvent phase was simulated with ASPEN Plus using the scheme proposed by Nhien et al ., and the operational parameters were determined.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is supposed that LA and FA are completely extracted in the solvent phase . The solvent phase was simulated with ASPEN Plus using the scheme proposed by Nhien et al ., and the operational parameters were determined. The solvent stream is fed to the first distillation column to recover FA at the top (99.9%), whereas the bottom stream is introduced into the second distillation column to recover LA and furfural (both with 99% of yield) …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Techno‐economic assessment of carboxylic acids, furfural, and pellet production in a pine sawdust biorefinery

Clauser

Gutiérrez

Área

et al. 2018

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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Pine sawdust is an important lignocellulosic waste from the primary industrialization of wood, and its valorization using the biorefinery concept could add new value chains to the forest industry. Compared with large‐scale biorefineries, small‐scale ones involve lower capital and logistics costs, lower risk, and can increase the use of labor in rural areas. A scheme was proposed for the use of the hemicelluloses obtained from the spent liquor of a steam explosion pretreatment of pine sawdust. With the proposed scheme, levulinic acid (LA), formic acid (FA), acetic acid and furfural are obtained from the liquid fraction while pellets are produced from the solid fraction. This pine sawdust biorefinery allows about 747 kg of pellets, 57 kg of LA, 23 kg of FA, 18 kg of acetic acid, and 22 kg of furfural per 1000 kg of dry sawdust to be obtained. The energy used for LA production is one of the main production costs. When 95% of the residual solid is used to generate steam, there is an improvement in the internal rate of return (IRR). The heat integration allows a reduction of 10% in the steam consumption for LA, increasing the capacity for pellet production. The results obtained are therefore essential when seeking alternatives for pine sawdust biorefineries, focusing on the improvement of the production processes, satisfaction of energy requirements, and the reduction of the recovery costs. Three alternatives for the valorization of pine sawdust were analyzed and the best of them obtained an IRR of about 17%. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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“…Cellulose is source of a various products considered as building blocks for the chemical industry, like succinic, fumaric, and malic acids, 2,5‐furandicarboxylic acid, 3‐hydroxypropionic acid, aspartic acid, glucaric acid, glutamic acid, itaconic acid, levulinic acid, 3‐hydroxybutyrolactone, glycerol, sorbitol, and xylitol / arabinitol . Levulinic acid (LA), in particular, has been singled out as one of the main high value‐added chemicals that can be obtained from lignocellulosic biomass, based on its potential markets and the technical complexity of synthetic pathway …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenge of converting biomass polysaccharides into levulinic acid through heterogeneous catalytic processes

Covinich

Clauser

Felissia

et al. 2019

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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The differences between a biorefinery and an oil refinery are determined by the higher oxygen content of the biorefinery's biomass, its high degree of functionalization, its low thermal stability, its polar components, which are mostly acidic, its highly heterogeneous structure, and its quality variation as result of genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. Levulinic acid (LA) is one of the main high value‐added chemicals that can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass as raw material. The main challenges for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to levulinic acid are related to the improvement of the technologies to obtain a pure and cost‐competitive product, the design and use of efficient heterogeneous catalysts, and the improvements in the selectivity and useful life of the catalyst. This is an up‐to‐date review of the state of knowledge about the heterogeneous catalytic conversion of biomass into LA, addressing the technical hurdles that impede the attainment of high yields. This work outlines the chemistry of LA synthesis and discusses in detail the influence of the lignocellulosic raw material, reaction time, temperature, solvent according to the chemical pathway, and efficiency of the chosen Lewis and Brønsted solid acid catalysts. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Design and optimization of the levulinic acid recovery process from lignocellulosic biomass

Cited by 43 publications

References 29 publications

Techno-economic assessment of hybrid extraction and distillation processes for furfural production from lignocellulosic biomass

Techno-economic assessment of hybrid extraction and distillation processes for furfural production from lignocellulosic biomass

Techno‐economic assessment of carboxylic acids, furfural, and pellet production in a pine sawdust biorefinery

The challenge of converting biomass polysaccharides into levulinic acid through heterogeneous catalytic processes

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