Title:
The Study of Aquatic Plant Pretreatment to C5-Sugar
Author(s):
Hongsiri, W., Bruggemann, J., de Jong, W.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
A biorefinery is a highly attractive energy conversion system that can produce multiple energy carrier products from biomass. Furfural is a platform chemical with the potential to either replace or substitute fossil oil derived products as an intermediate in the chemical industry, and moreover to be the starting material for bio-fuel based blends. The research work described in this paper is focused on production of sugars and their dehydration product mainly furfural from aquatic plants in acidic reaction environment via a hydrolysis-dehydration process using aqueous HCl at low concentration (50mM) and moderated temperature. More in particular the effect(s) of a second catalyst such as sea-salts and seawater on furfural formation are investigated as the salt inventories involved have a high potential for product yield improvements. Water hyacinth and red seaweed were chosen as the aquatic plants studied in this work. A one-liter mechanically stirred stainless steel autoclave reactor was used for the experiments. The operating temperature was in the range of 160-200 °C. The experimental observations indicated that the aquatic plants were largely converted in the process of hydrothermal pre-treatment to C5-sugar compounds. The results also indicated that the aquatic source appears to provide significantly different C5-sugar yields. C5-sugar from water hyacinth and seaweed was obtained at yields of 25-35 and 45-60% wt, respectively. The interesting results from seaweed indicated that almost all of the derived C5-sugar was xylose. On the other hand, water hyacinth provided a mass ratio of 50/50 for xylose/arabinose for the C5-sugars formed. Typical yields of furfural for water hyacinth and seaweed conversion were approximately 40 and 50% mol based on the released C5-sugar.
Keywords:
biorefinery, hemicellulose, macroalgae, sugar, hydrolysis
Topic:
R&D on Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Electricity and Chemicals
Subtopic:
Biorefineries
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
2CO.2.5
Pages:
544 - 549
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-2CO.2.5
Price:
FREE
