Furfural production from xylose and birch hydrolysate liquor in a biphasic system and techno-economic analysis

Furfural has been highlighted as one of the top ten most rewarding bio-based building blocks by the US Department of Energy. In this study, furfural was produced from xylose and birch hydrolysate liquor employing a batch reactor in a biphasic system. The formation of furfural was conducted under aut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBiomass conversion and biorefinery Vol. 11; no. 5; pp. 2095 - 2106
Main Authors Gómez Millán, Gerardo, Bangalore Ashok, Rahul Prasad, Oinas, Pekka, Llorca, Jordi, Sixta, Herbert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Biotechnology
Cost analysis
Economic analysis
Energy
Furfural
Hydrolysates
Liquor
Original Article
Payback periods
Phase ratio
Refineries
Renewable and Green Energy
Xylose
Xylose
Techno-economic analysis
Furfural
2-sec-Butylphenol
Birch hydrolysate liquor
Bio-refinery
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Summary:Furfural has been highlighted as one of the top ten most rewarding bio-based building blocks by the US Department of Energy. In this study, furfural was produced from xylose and birch hydrolysate liquor employing a batch reactor in a biphasic system. The formation of furfural was conducted under auto-catalyzed conditions. 2-sec-Butylphenol was used as extractant to promptly extract furfural from the aqueous phase in order to minimize furfural degradation reactions. The effect of time, temperature, and organic-to-aqueous phase ratio were investigated. The maximum furfural yields from xylose and birch hydrolysate liquor as feedstock under auto-catalyzed conditions when employing 2-sec-butylphenol (SBP) were 59 mol% and 54 mol%, respectively. In the monophasic system when using hydrolysate, 46% furfural was yielded. Based on a techno-economic analysis carried out for furfural, the total investment cost for a plant integrated with an existing pulp mill or bio-refinery is estimated as 14 M€. The minimum selling price of furfural found to be 1.62 € kg −1 . With a furfural selling price of 1.93 € kg −1 , the payback period is approximately 5 years and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 20.7% is achieved at the end of the project lifetime.
ISSN:2190-6815
2190-6823
DOI:10.1007/s13399-020-00702-4