A feasible process for furfural production from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts in a new biphasic system

Aojie Deng; Qixuan Lin; Yuhuan Yan; Huiling Li; Junli Ren; Chuanfu Liu; Runcang Sun

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.002

A feasible process for furfural production from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts in a new biphasic system

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Sep:216:754-60. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.002. Epub 2016 Jun 2.

Authors

Aojie Deng¹, Qixuan Lin¹, Yuhuan Yan¹, Huiling Li¹, Junli Ren², Chuanfu Liu¹, Runcang Sun³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: renjunli@scut.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.

PMID: 27295253
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.002

Abstract

A feasible approach was developed to produce furfural from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts as the solid acid catalyst in a new biphasic system with dichloromethane (DCM) as the organic phase and the concentrated pre-hydrolysis liquor (CPHL) containing NaCl as the aqueous phase. The biochar catalyst possessing many acidity groups (SO3H, COOH and phenolic OH groups) was prepared by the carbonization and sulfonation process of the corncob hydrolyzed residue. The influence of the catalytic condition on furfural yield and selectivity was comparatively studied. It was found that 81.14% furfural yield and 83.0% furfural selectivity were obtained from CPHL containing 5wt% xylose using this biochar catalyst in the CPHL-NaCl/DCM biphasic system at 170°C for 60min. In addition, with the regeneration process, this catalyst displayed the high performance and excellent recyclability.

Keywords: Biphasic system; Concentrated pre-hydrolysis liquor; Corncob residue; Furfural; Sulfonated carbon-based catalysts.

MeSH terms

Acids / chemistry
Biotechnology / methods*
Carbon / chemistry
Catalysis
Charcoal / metabolism*
Furaldehyde / metabolism*
Hydrolysis
Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Recycling
Sulfonic Acids / chemistry
Temperature
Thermogravimetry
Time Factors
Waste Disposal, Fluid*
Water / chemistry

Substances

Acids
Sulfonic Acids
biochar
Water
Charcoal
Carbon
Furaldehyde