Maximizing furfural concentration from wheat straw and Eucalyptus globulus by nonisothermal autohydrolysis

Abstract

The autohydrolysis process as a method for selective extraction of hemicelluloses and conversion to furfural was proposed for lignocellulosic raw materials. Samples of wheat straw (WS) and Eucalyptus globulus (EG) were subjected to nonisothermal autohydrolysis, defined by temperature 180–240°C. Within a biorefinery scheme for the selected materials, the aim of this study is both (a) to optimize furfural processing technology to enable higher yields and improved productivity from EG and WS by autohydrolysis and (b) to not excessively degrade the remaining polymeric constituents (glucan) in solid to facilitate a potential later use. Differences in the rate of the dehydration reaction of xylose to furfural have been observed, and it is faster in the case of WS with respect to that observed for eucalyptus. In that form, 4.25 g/100 g raw material (26% of the initial xylan in WS) could be found at 220°C, and an increase in the temperature (240°C) yielded 4.54 g/100 g raw material, 28% of the initial xylan. In EG, the increase in the hydrolysis temperature (240°C) yielded liquor with higher contents of furfural (4.45 g/100 g raw material, 25% of the initial xylan) and acetic acid (4.49 g/100 g raw material) and smaller contents of arabinose and xylan. In WS, a faster dehydration is found. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 1236–1242, 2015

Furfural production from birch hemicelluloses by two-step processing: a potential technology for biorefineries

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Furfural production from corncobs using thiourea as additive

“…However, the deactivation of solid acid is still a problem needed to be solved. Garc ıa-Dom ınguez et al [21] have used the autohydrolysis process to optimize furfural process technology and obtained high furfural yield. Lewis acid involving most of metal chlorides could improve furfural yield by accelerating reaction rate with the help of metal cations and chloride ions.…”

Optimization of Laccase/Mediator System (LMS) Stage Applied in Fractionation of Eucalyptus globulus

“…Additionally, it was observed that the glucan initially present in the raw material remained unchanged to a large degree (>80%) and that the polysaccharides of the hemicellulosic fraction of the original raw material were basically solubilized (the xylan, araban, and acetyl groups). Between 65% and 82% of the hemicelluloses present in the raw material was recovered in the liquid phase [49].…”