A comparative study of water-immiscible organic solvents in the production of furfural from xylose and birch hydrolysate

Gerardo Gómez Millán, Sanna Hellsten, Alistair W.T. King, Juha Pekka Pokki, Jordi Llorca, Herbert Sixta*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Furfural (FUR) was produced from xylose using a biphasic batch reaction system. Water-immiscible organic solvents such as isophorone, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF) and cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) were used to promptly extract FUR from the aqueous phase in order to avoid the degradation to humins as largely as possible. The effect of time, temperature, organic solvent and organic-to-aqueous ratio on xylose conversion and FUR yield were investigated in auto-catalyzed conditions. Experiments at three temperatures (170, 190 and 210 °C) were carried out in a stirred microwave-assisted batch reactor, which established the optimal conditions for achieving the highest FUR yield. The maximum FUR yields from xylose were 78 mol% when using CPME, 48 mol% using isophorone and 71 mol% in the case of 2-MTHF at an aqueous to organic phase ratio of 1:1 (v/v). Birch hydrolysate was also used to show the high furfural yield that can be obtained in the biphasic system under optimized conditions. The present study suggests that CPME can be used as a green and efficient extraction solvent for the conversion of xylose into furfural without salt addition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)354-363
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
Volume72
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2019
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This research has been done in collaboration with Stora Enso and funded through Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme SELECT+, the support of which is gratefully acknowledged. G.G.M. was supported also by CONACyT-SENER (the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology - Secretariat of Energy). The authors are also grateful for the support of the staff at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems at Aalto University especially to Heidi Meriö-Talvio and Mika Sipponen. JL is a Serra Húnter Fellow and is grateful to ICREA Academia program.

Keywords

  • 2-MTHF
  • CPME
  • Furfural
  • Isophorone
  • Prehydrolysate liquor
  • Xylose

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