Catalytic Conversion of Sugarcane Bagasse into Furfural

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Date

2022-04

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The production of furfural, high-value-added platform chemicals, is hampered by the typical drawbacks of homogeneous acid catalysts, such as difficulty in separating the catalyst from the reaction mixture. As a result, developing a heterogeneous catalyst to overcome the limitations of current commercial processes is highly desirable. The carbon-based catalysts were synthesized by carbonizing and functionalizing teff-straw as a carbon precursor in concentrated sulfuric acid simultaneously and showed the ability to dehydrate xylan/xylose to generate furfural. As shown by FTIR, the catalyst comprises functional groups such as –SO 3 iv H, –COOH, and –OH, which are extremely beneficial to catalytic performance. The elemental analysis of the samples also confirmed the successful attachment of sulfur to the carbon structure and XRD results, the diffraction peak at 2 from 15 to 30 o , depicted the amorphous nature of the catalyst prepared. Experimental runs, catalytic and thermal, were carried out over the prepared catalyst to investigate catalytic activities such as overall conversion, selectivity, and catalyst stability. Conversion of xylose to furfural was investigated using a Teff straw-based sulfonated catalyst (TSSC) in water/toluene as an extraction medium. A maximum furfural yield of 62.50% was obtained at 190°C for 20 min with 0.2g solid acid. Besides, hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse to xylose using a dilute sulfuric acid catalyst was investigated. An optimum xylose yield of roughly 0.18g/g of dry bagasse was obtained in 32 minutes with 0.77% sulfuric acid at 143 °C. Model-Based Calibration Toolbox in MATLAB software was used for the design of experiments, statistical modeling, and optimization. Although the combined effect of temperature, acid concentration, and time was positive towards the formation of glucose and furfural, harsher treatment conditions showed negative effects on the yield of xylose. The experimental data were analyzed to create a kinetic model for lignocellulosic biomass conversion to furfural using the synthesized catalyst. The kinetic model for the dehydration of xylose to furfural was developed using experimental data obtained based on the Central composite design. The well-evaluated kinetic model matched well with the experimental data and kinetic parameters. The thermodynamic analysis suggested that the presence of toluene, in the reaction system, as a solvent for instantaneous extraction of furfural enhanced furfural production while decreasing degradation rate as compared to water-only system.

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Keywords

Sugarcane Bagasse, Catalytic Conversion, Furfural

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