Innovative parallel synthesis of 5-nonanone and furfural from lignocellulosic biomass accompanied by deep economic analysis

Nauman Ahmad, Moied Faizan Asif, Nabeel Ahmad*, Usama Ahmed, Abdul Gani Abdul Jameel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

An integrated strategy is developed to utilize all three primary components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) of lignocellulosic biomass for the coproduction of hydrocarbon fuel (5-nonanone) and bio-chemicals (furfural and high purity lignin). After biomass fractionation, (1) 5-nonanone is produced with high yield of 89% using cellulose-derived γ-valerolactone (GVL), which can potentially serve as a platform molecule for the production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels for the transportation sector; (2) furfural, a valuable platform chemical, is produced using hemicellulose; and (3) production of high-purity lignin, which can be used to produce carbon foams or battery anodes. Separation subsystems are designed to effectively recover the solvents for reuse in the conversion processes, which ultimately improves the economic feasibility of the integrated process, resulting in achieving lower minimum selling price (MSP) of $5.47 GGE-1 for 5-nonanone compared to market price. Heat pump is introduced to perform heat integration, which reduces utility requirements more than 85%. Finally, a wide range of techno-economic analysis is performed to highlight the major cost and technological drivers of the integrated process.

Original languageEnglish
Article number119251
JournalJournal of Environmental Management
Volume348
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • 5-Nonanone
  • Biomass
  • Economic evaluation
  • Furfural
  • Heat integration
  • High purity lignin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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