This article is an update to a previous article: "Plastic Bottles from Carbon Dioxide and a Furfural Derivative"

Most of the 270 billion plastic bottles used in the U.S. each year are derived from petroleum. And that manufacturing contributes to a global greenhouse gas hit of more than 200 million tons of carbon dioxide each year — the same amount about 150 coal power plants generate annually. Some plastics companies are attempting to cut that footprint by substituting corn-based sugar for petroleum. But planting, fertilizing and harvesting corn generates significant carbon emissions, too, says researcher Matt Kanan (Standford University), where they developed a process that turns furfural into a precursor to make plastic bottles:

1. Convert the corncobs into furfural

2. Make furoic acid (a common food additive) from the furfural.

3. Mix hot furoic acid with CO₂ to make 2-5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA).

4. FCDA is a precursor for making polyethylene furandicarboxylate (PEF), which is an attractive replacement for PET.

NB: Worldwide, about 50 million tons of PET are produced each year for items such as fabrics, electronics, recyclable beverage containers and personal-care products.

DalinYebo's Comment: Corncobs can be removed from the fields without any negative impact on soil health. Actually, they take a few years to decompose and initially take nitrogen from the soil during the decomposition process!

Reference:

discoverymaganzine.com

news.stanford.edu

Indian researchers [1] investigated furfuryl alcohol ("FA", a furfural derivative) blends with ionic liquids ("ILs") as a basis for an eco-friendly rocket fuel. ILs are a suitable alternative to replace toxic rocket fuels like hydrazine, because they "fulfill most of the desirable properties such as negligible vapor pressure, low ignition delay, high energy density, low toxicity, stability over wide temperature range and it is also hydrolytically stable". The researchers also report enhancements of the hypergolic fuel properties by the "addition of nanomaterial."

We have previously reported on use of FA in hypergolic propellants like Furaline, the 1950s rocket fuel that was also used to booster rockets of the first interceptor jets or Fantol, the hypergolic starter fuel, which was already used for the German Enzian and Schmetterling missiles^[2] towards the end of the 2nd World War.

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Reference

[1] Energy and Environmental Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DU), Pune, 411025, India.DOI: 10.1002/slct.201600358

During a presentation of a feasibility study on the Integration of Furfural Production into a Sugar Mill, a client recently conclude that ..

"it's really not rocket science!"

Their mill also produces ethanol, co-generates electricity and they are now looking at processing trash/leaves, as green cane harvesting is being introduced. The technology risk is low, but the bottom-line impact is high, when integrating furfural production to beneficiate residues from processing crops such as:

Generally, we have found that an investment in the addition of furfural production has returns (IRR) of over 25% and the payback period is below 4 years.

"Why are there not many more furfural producers?"

There are several answers to this question and DalinYebo would look forward to an opportunity to share them with your organisation. In the mean time, we take the liberty to direct you via the links below to some background information on this topic.

Benefit from the growing demand for biobased chemicals. Read more .. Viability Study: 13,500 tpa furfural & 2.2 MW electricity Read more .. Creating Wealth from Crop Residues Read more .. Fast, low-risk and low-cost bio-refining of bagasse and trash. Read more .. Upto 10 x higher margins, compared to Ethanol from hemicelluloses. Read more .. Furfural is a B2B trade, with attractive niche clients who offer longterm off-take agreements.

Of Interest? Provide us with some information about your current or planned operation (For the response form, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and we'll get back to you with a concept plan on how 'furfural' would benefit your business.

Adding Value to Biomass

DalinYebo, which means "Wealth Creation" (Xhosa) was founded in 2001 to trade and develop new furfural production with the support of International Furan Technology (Pty) Ltd (a wholly owned DalinYebo subsidiary). Our collective knowhow enables us to provide complete technology & business solutions for the manufacture of furfural:

For owners of biomass we offer technology and market access, creating investment opportunities in the cleantech space. Contact us to discuss the potential your biomass has for the production of furfural.

For the agri (Biomass) processing, sugar, pulp & paper, etc. industries, we provide knowhow and technology to convert (residual) biomass to chemicals and energy.

Bagasse, Corncobs, Sunflower Husks and more ..

Benefits

There are many benefits when integrating furfural production into a sugar mill that co-generates electricity:

The income per tonne of bagasse is at least 50% higher, than from electricity sales.

The furfural process improves the calorific value of the boiler feed.

Furfural production technology is regarded as low risk (has been used since the 1920s) and is easy to implement.

For more details, have a look at our "Sugarcane" page, where you find the links to many relevant articles on this topic.

Stay informed and ..