Chemicals
Process For The Production Of Furfural From Pentoses
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 May 2012 03:29
Congratulations to our Associate Consultant Gianluca Marcotullio (and also Wiebren) on the publication of United States Patent Application 20120108829!
Gianluca has a special business focus on technologies that reduce energy (= steam reduction in furfural plants) and complements the DalinYebo team with his particular interest and knowledge in the field of process development for new generation biorefineries.
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Furfural at Proserpine - Update
Last Updated on Friday, 07 October 2011 01:13
"There are a number of reasons as to why the commissioning of the furfural plant has not been completed", says Ian McBean, Proserpine's acting CEO. These include the need to comply with HICB directives, the current financial situation, the need to concentrate on sugar milling and the ongoing asset sale process."
Regrettably, these reasons have prevented the new furfural plant from starting-up during the 2011 season. However, "both prospective purchasers have made clear commitments to furfural" and a successful outcome to the voting process will ensure that the plant is operational in 2012.
The results of this round of voting will be know at the end of October.
Also see:
- The Wait (for the Furfural Plant Startup) Continues
- Proserpine Sugar Future Uncertain
- Sale of Proserpine Mill
The Wait (for the Furfural Plant Startup) Continues
Last Updated on Saturday, 17 September 2011 11:48
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Read more: The Wait (for the Furfural Plant Startup) Continues
Proserpine Sugar Future Uncertain
Last Updated on Wednesday, 31 August 2011 09:11
Members of the Proserpine Sugar Mill have voted to reject a $115 million bid to save the ailing north Queensland miller.
Sucrogen, owned by Singapore-based Wilmar International, made their offer some weeks ago, but last week Tully Sugar, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned COFCO, surprised industry and growers by making a rival bid.
Add a commentSimultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation of lignocellulosic residues from commercial furfural production
Last Updated on Friday, 05 August 2011 00:56
We state in dalinyeb.com/bbs:
Cellulosic Ethanol (Pre-treatment): The “BBS” plug-in removes the pentosans (C5-components), which interfere (partially poison: 
) with the cellulase! Therefore, when “BBS” is plugged-in as part of the lignocellulose pre-treatment stage, it will improve the quality of the biomass for enzymatic conversion, reducing operating costs/improving conversion yields.
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Sale of Proserpine Mill
Last Updated on Monday, 06 June 2011 00:48
Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Milling Association Limited (PCSMA) wishes to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Wilmar International Limited’s Australianbased sugar subsidiary, Sucrogen, for the sale of all of the business assets of PCSMA, on a debt and cash-free basis, for A$115 million.
Furfural formation from D-xylose ... allows for exceptionally high yields
Last Updated on Thursday, 19 May 2011 14:04
Starting from the results achieved in a previous work on the effects of Cl- ions on furfural formation in aqueous acid solution [Marcotullio, G. et al., Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1739], the general effect of different halides is addressed. See http://j.mp/iNBx1g Add a comment Biodiesel From Furfural
Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 March 2011 08:14
A team at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) has designed a new simple, energy-efficient process (that also does not require any organic solvents) for the production of renewable diesel frombiomass waste. A paper on their work is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie InternationalEdition.
The process converts 2-methylfuran (2MF)—which can be obtained from biomass wastes such as corncobs, oat hulls, bagasse, and sunflower husks—into diesel-range hydrocarbons through two consecutive catalytic steps that involve hydroxyalkylation/alkylation and hydrodeoxygenation, with an overall yield of 87%.
A number of routes have been and are being developed for the conversion of biomass into renewable fuels, including (but not limited to):
- Gasification of biomass followed by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis;
- Fast pyrolysis and upgrading of bio-oil;
- Hydrolysis of biomass followed by the fermentation of the sugars by genetically modified microorganisms to hydrocarbons;
- Dehydration of hydrolyzed sugars to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) or into furfural (FUR) when starting from hexoses or pentoses, respectively, followed by aqueous phase processing;
- Production of γ-valerolactone from biomass-derived carbohydrates via levulinic acid, followed by decarboxylation to produce butene and CO2, the former then being oligomerized to octenes and hexadecenes in a second step.
This list of processes to produce second-generation biofuels can be further expanded, but the extent to which one of these technologies will play an active role in the future biofuel industry will depend on economics, energy efficiency, and environmental issues. Surplus energy consumption and process limitations can be detected in most of the processes proposed to date. For example, the excessive cleavage of carbon–carbon bonds and subsequent reformation leads to energy losses. Extractions of products with organic solvents are energy and cost-intensive steps that change, to the worse, the overall energy balance of the process. Organic solvents as reaction medium should be avoided, as they enlarge process volumes with a negative impact on process economics and environment. A crucial point for the optimization of the overall process economics is the perfect overlap of the boiling point range of the product mixture, with diesel range C9 to C24 hydrocarbons.
By considering all of the above described limitations, we have designed a sustainable process, based on reactions other than those reported before, which involves hydrophobic intermediates and produces nonpolar alkane products suitable for high-quality diesel fuel. This strategy implies that, owing to the polarity of the products, water separation by distillation is not required, but an automatic, energy-neutral physical separation of (intermediate) products from water will occur reducing energy consumption in the process.
—Corma et al.
The first step is the conversion of biomass into furfural—an established industrial process. In an adaptation of another current process, furfural can be converted with high selectivity into 2-methyl-furfural (2MF), a ring consisting of four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, with a side chain consisting of a methyl group (-CH3).
Three molecules of 2MF are linked together. This requires water and an acid catalyst. This reaction causes one third of the rings to open and each to link to two other rings (hydroxy alkylation/alkylation). The aqueous phase, which also contains the catalyst, separates from the organic phase, which contains the intermediate product, on its own. It can easily be removed and the catalyst recycled. In a second reaction, the two other rings must also be opened and their oxygen atoms removed. This reaction uses a special platinum-containing catalyst (hydrodeoxygenation).
In the end we obtain 87% of the diesel fraction in the form of branched hydrocarbon chains with nine to 16 carbon atoms. This is the best yield reported in the literature thus far for biodiesel synthesis.
—Avelino Corma
The process is very stable at lab levels (more than 140h). Gas-phase and lower molecular weight byproducts can be used to produce heat. The resulting renewable hydrocarbon liquids are of excellent quality (cetane number 71, pour point -90 °C) and can be mixed directly with conventional diesel fuels.
The process described herein opens new routes for producing high quality diesel from waste biomass. Indeed, we can envisage two other processes that we are currently working out in which 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and 5- methylfurfural derived from hexoses are reacted with 2MF in the presence of an acid catalyst under similar conditions as employed before for butanal and 2MF.
—Corma et al.
Resources
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Corma, A., Torre, O. d. l. , Renz, M. and Villandier, N. (2011) Production of High-Quality Diesel from Biomass Waste Products. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, doi: 10.1002/anie.201007508
Green Car Congress: New simple, energy-efficient process for the direct production of renewable diesel from biomass waste" (3 February 2011)
Furfural and its many By-products
Last Updated on Sunday, 09 January 2011 13:31
The chemistry and technology of furfural and its many by-products, by Karl J. Zeitsch (Elsevier), is also available on google books (see below). Since its publications over ten years ago,
Add a comment Proserpine Mill closed for the season
Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 November 2010 01:36
The 2010 cane crushing season has been one to forget.·Cyclone Ului in March left its mark by increasing the amount of dirt brought into the factory with the cane causing processing difficulties.·The wettest crushing season on record has meant a lot of time lost as machinery could not access the fields to harvest the cane.·Final commissioning of the furfural plant which is closely integrated to the sugar mill was hampered by these interruptions.·
Add a comment Green Composites
Last Updated on Thursday, 04 November 2010 20:22
Renewable materials like furfuryl alcohol, palmitic acid, and jute were used for the first time to develop green biocomposites. Furfuryl ester of palmitic acid was prepared by enzymatic route and was used as the matrix material for developing green composite materials. ... NB: Register and/or·log-in to continue ...{access view=registered-}
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