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

Abstract

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.

Concept for Recycling Waste Biomass from the Sugar Industry for Chemical and Biotechnological Purposes

“…Acidic hydrolysis is one of the most commonly-used methods for the chemical processing of biomass [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. It is performed using a mineral acid, such as sulfuric acid [ 11 ], hydrochloric acid [ 12 ] or phosphoric acid [ 13 ], or with organic acids, mainly dicarboxylic acids [ 14 ], in concentrations of 0.5–10%.…”

“…It is performed using a mineral acid, such as sulfuric acid [ 11 ], hydrochloric acid [ 12 ] or phosphoric acid [ 13 ], or with organic acids, mainly dicarboxylic acids [ 14 ], in concentrations of 0.5–10%. Elevated pressures and temperatures of 140–190 °C are usually required throughout the process [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Acid hydrolysis of waste biomass from a variety of sources including straw, bagasse, corncobs, oats and wheat bran can be used to produce furfural on an industrial scale.…”

Comparative evaluation of lignocellulosic biorefinery scenarios under a life‐cycle assessment approach

“…28 Improving the efficiency of furfural recovery may be a significant aspect given its importance in the market. Nhien et al 29 have proposed an alternative arrangement for the recovery of furfural obtained from lignocellulosic biomass. The process implements a twostep recovery system, combining extraction and distillation.…”

Variation of Chemical Constituents of Qinghai Spruce in Natural Decay Process, Including Furfural Production

“…Pentosan is one of the main components of almost all plants. The content of pentosan in raw material is above 18% to 20%, which has industrial value in furfural production (Mansilla et al 1998;Nhien et al 2017). At present, the main raw materials of furfural production are corncobs (pentosan content 30 to 40%), bagasse (pentosan content 25 to 27%), cotton husks (27%), and hardwoods (21 to 24%) (Jaeggle 1976).…”