Separation and Purification of 2,5-Dimethylfuran: Process Design and Comparative Technoeconomic and Sustainability Evaluation of Simulated Moving Bed Adsorption and Conventional Distillation

Abstract

The furanic chemical 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) is an attractive biobased fuel and feedstock. High-yield biphasic processes for DMF synthesis from sugars employ higher alcohols such as n-butanol (BuOH) as solvents. This leads to a product containing <8 wt % DMF and byproducts in the BuOH solvent along with water. DMF process economics are dominated by separation costs for DMF purification and recycle of BuOH and water. We previously demonstrated efficient adsorptive separation of DMF with a stable ZIF-8 metal–organic framework adsorbent. Here, we present a detailed, comparative technoeconomic analysis and sustainability indicators of adsorptive versus conventional distillation separation processes to produce 98 wt % pure DMF at 100 metric tons/day. The novel adsorptive process integrates a simulated moving bed (SMB) unit with water removal and desorbent recovery systems, whereas the distillation process relies on multiple columns operating at different pressures to handle the strongly nonideal multicomponent thermodynamics. Rigorous process modeling is conducted by a combination of the Aspen Plus flowsheet simulation package and our in-house SMB modeling and optimization package, with realistic multicomponent adsorption and vapor–liquid equilibrium models parametrized by experimental data. This is followed by detailed calculations and sensitivity analysis of bare-module, utility, and material costs. The net present values (NPVs) of the process alternatives show a clear long-term economic advantage of the adsorptive process, mainly due to large reduction in utility costs. For a 100 MTD DMF plant, the ΔNPV for adsorptive separation is strongly positive (>$6M at a 10% discount rate and 15-year operation) and remains competitive over a large range of sensitivity factors. When translated to a large potential DMF biofuel market size similar to that of bioethanol, the SMB-based adsorptive process would save >$8B/yr. globally in separation costs. Furthermore, the novel adsorptive process has much better sustainability indicators, including 41% lower process energy intensity and 37% lower process CO2 emissions, as well as a number of qualitatively determined environmental and safety advantages.

Progress in Selective Conversion of 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural to DHMF and DMF

“…DHMF can be widely used to produce ethers, [119–122] ketones [123–124] and polymers [125–129] . DMF is promising liquid biofuel that can be transported conveniently [130–131] . Consequently, DHMF and DMF have attracted attention from researchers.…”

“…[125][126][127][128][129] DMF is promising liquid biofuel that can be transported conveniently. [130][131] Consequently, DHMF and DMF have attracted attention from researchers.…”

Recovery and Enrichment of Organic Acids from Kraft Black Liquor by Simulated Moving Bed Adsorption

“…Using the parameters obtained in Tables and , the initial SMB operating condition at 295 K was determined by employing robust modeling and optimization techniques. The mathematical model was formulated similar to the work of Chiang et al, , wherein the convection-diffusion equation is used to describe the mass balance of the bulk fluid phase and the linear driving force model is used to represent mass transfer into the particle. The governing equations and boundary conditions are described in Sections S1.7 and S1.8.…”

Laminar Flame Characteristics of 2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) Biofuel: A Comparative Review with Ethanol and Gasoline

“…Recent advances in catalytic technology can accelerate the conversion of carbohydrate-like materials into furan-based fuels such as DMF (Onlamnao et al, 2020) (Pandey et al, 2022) (Guo et al, 2020) (Buchori et al, 2020). However, the achievements of conversion technology still do not mask the challenges of biomass pretreatment such as reactor selection, catalyst type, optimization of reaction conditions, and recovery solutions for by-product lines (Chiang et al, 2020) (Aghaei et al, 2020)(ZuoHua et al, 2021. Another problem arises from the selection of feedstocks because related factors such as availability, ingredients, and cost determine the effectiveness of the circular economy transition .…”