Lignin recovery and furfural production from prehydrolysate streams

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11401252-B2
Application number	US-201716088980-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2017
Priority date	Apr 20, 2016
Publication date	Aug 2, 2022
Grant date	Aug 2, 2022

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of producing furfural and extracting lignin from a hemi-cellulosic biomass solution comprising a total quantity of C5 sugars, comprising the steps of heating the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution to a temperature of at least about 200° C.; acidifying the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution with acid to produce the furfural in vapor phase; and condensing the furfural to recover furfural in solution, wherein the furfural is produced at a total molar yield of at least 70% of moles of furfural produced/the total moles C5 sugars present in the initial hemi-cellulosic biomass solution. Low molecular weight lignin can also be recovered from the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution prior to furfural production by membrane concentration, acidification, coagulation and filtration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing furfural comprising:
providing a hemi-cellulosic biomass solution comprising a total quantity of C5 sugars;
heating the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution to a temperature of at least 200° C.;
acidifying the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution with acid to produce furfural in vapor phase; and
condensing the furfural to recover furfural in solution,

wherein the furfural is produced at a total yield of at least 70% moles of furfural produced/the total moles of C5 sugars present in the initial hemi-cellulosic biomass solution.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the total molar yield is at least 75%.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid used to acidify the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is sulfuric acid.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the sulfuric acid has a concentration of 0.1%-0.5% w/w of the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature to which the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is heated is between 220° C.-240° C.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature to which the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is heated is 240° C.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of purifying and concentrating the furfural by distillation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the furfural is separated from water and acetic acid by distillation.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is from hardwood chips, hardwood (HW) lignin plant; black liquor from HW pulp mills; red liquor from hardwood sulfite pulp mills; C5 sugar streams from thermo-mechanical pulping bio-plants; C5-rich sugar stream from cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) production; and non-wood sources.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the non-wood sources are oats and annual plants.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is a prehydrolysate stream.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said prehydrolysate stream is obtained by contacting the hemi-cellulosic biomass with steam, hot water, a mild acidic stream, an alkaline solution, or a solvent.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the furfural is produced at a total molar yield of at least 75.7% moles of furfural produced/the total moles C5 sugars present in the initial hemi-cellulosic biomass solution.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the furfural is produced at a total molar yield of at least 80% of moles of furfural produced/the total moles C5 sugars present in the initial hemi-cellulosic biomass solution.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the furfural is produced at a total molar yield of at least 85% of moles of furfural produced/the total moles C5 sugars present in the initial hemi-cellulosic biomass solution.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a first step of extracting lignin from the provided hemi-cellulosic biomass solution by concentration using membranes.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the membranes cut-off are 1000 Da.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein acetic acid is recovered from the permeate from the 1000 Da cut-off membranes using a hollow fiber contactor.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the hemi-cellulosic biomass solution is acidified to pH 2 after being concentrated with the 1000 Da cut-off membranes.

Assignees

• Fpinnovations

Inventors

• Jemaa Naceur
• Mazar Adil
• Wafa Al Dajani Waleed
• Paleologou Michael

Classifications

• C07D307/50 Primary

  Preparation from natural products · CPC title

• Y02E50/10

  Biofuels, e.g. bio-diesel · CPC title