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Novel Hybrid Reactive Distillation with Extraction and Distillation Processes for Furfural Production from an Actual Xylose Solution

Author

Listed:
  • Le Cao Nhien

    (School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea
    These authors contribute equally to this work.)

  • Nguyen Van Duc Long

    (School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
    School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
    These authors contribute equally to this work.)

  • Moonyong Lee

    (School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea)

Abstract

Furfural is only derived from lignocellulosic biomass and is an important chemical used in the plastics, agrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. The existing industrial furfural production process, involving reaction and purification steps, suffers from a low yield and intensive energy use. Hence, major improvements are needed to sustainably upgrade the furfural production process. In this study, the conventional furfural process based on a continuous stirred tank reactor and distillation columns was designed and optimized from an actual aqueous xylose solution via a biomass pretreatment step. Subsequently, a reactive distillation (RD) and extraction/distillation (ED) configuration was proposed for the reaction and purification steps, respectively, to improve the process efficiency. RD can remove furfural instantly from the reactive liquid phase and can separate heavy components from the raw furfural stream, while the ED configuration with toluene and butyl chloride used as extracting solvents can effectively separate furfural from a dilute aqueous stream. The results showed that the hybrid RD-ED process using a butyl chloride solvent saves up to 51.8% and 57.4% of the total investment costs and total annual costs, respectively, compared to the conventional process. Furthermore, environmental impacts were evaluated and compared for all structural alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Le Cao Nhien & Nguyen Van Duc Long & Moonyong Lee, 2021. "Novel Hybrid Reactive Distillation with Extraction and Distillation Processes for Furfural Production from an Actual Xylose Solution," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:1152-:d:503437
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Le Cao Nhien & Neha Agarwal & Moonyong Lee, 2023. "Dehydration of Isopropanol: A Comparative Review of Distillation Processes, Heat Integration, and Intensification Techniques," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-25, August.
    2. Yus Donald Chaniago & Le Cao Nhien & Ahmad Naquash & Amjad Riaz & Gwang Sik Kim & Hankwon Lim & Moonyong Lee, 2021. "Pressure Swing-Based Reactive Distillation and Dividing Wall Column for Improving Manufacture of Propylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether Acetate," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Le Cao Nhien & Nguyen Van Duc Long & Moonyong Lee, 2021. "Novel Heat-Integrated Hybrid Distillation and Adsorption Process for Coproduction of Cellulosic Ethanol, Heat, and Electricity from Actual Lignocellulosic Fermentation Broth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.

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