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Acid–Hydrolysed Furfural Production from Rice Straw Bio-waste: Process

Synthesis, Simulation, and Optimisation

Article in South African Journal of Chemical Engineering · August 2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.sajce.2021.08.002

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 South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

South African Journal of Chemical Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sajce

Acid–hydrolysed furfural production from rice straw bio-waste: Process

synthesis, simulation, and optimisation
Nourhan Sherif a, Mamdouh Gadalla a, b, Dina Kamel a, *
a
The British University in Egypt, Department of Chemical Engineering, 11837, Cairo, Egypt
b
Port Said University, Department of Chemical Engineering, 42526, Port Said, Egypt

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Finding a way to efficiently utilize this bio-waste resource is a great challenge due to the depletion of traditional
Acid hydrolysis fossil fuels and the environmental impact associated to their use. Rice straw is considered as one of the main
Bio-energy cereal straws. It is produced in many countries every year in substantial amounts and it has a high ash content
Furans
and low protein content. Usually, rice straw is burned by farmers causing many adverse effects on the envi­
Liquid-liquid extraction
Rice straw
ronment and public health. This research investigates the process synthesis of furfural production through the
Process simulation acid-hydrolysis of rice straws. Furfural is a strategic bio-renewable chemical and has gained attention due to its
possibility to produce biofuels and bio chemicals. Aspen Plus® simulation package is employed for process
simulation, sizing, and analysis. Results of simulations are validated against an experimental work. Optimization
through manipulation of several parameters including acid concentration, reaction temperature, acid/rice straw
ratio, catalyst concentration, and type of acid to maximize the furfural yield and reaction conversion. A complete
flow sheet is synthesized and sensitivity analysis is studied to reach an optimum process concerning environment
and economics. The amount of furfural obtained as a final product from the process represents a yield of 73% per
100 kg/hr of rice straw processed.

1. Introduction products. Currently, more than 80 furfural-derived chemicals are used in

The depletion of traditional fossil fuels and environmental problems
related to their use have prompted much attention toward the use of
waste biomass (Luterbacher et al., 2014; Peng and She, 2014; Tsui and
Wong, 2019). Agricultural waste biomass conversion can be divided into
four categories: direct combustion, thermochemical, biochemical, and
agrochemical processes (Demirbas, 2001; Tsui et al., 2020). Several
studies have been focusing on the conversion of biomass wastes into fine
chemicals (Gallezot, 2011; Hu et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2019) and
drop-in fuels (Gallezot, 2011).
The potential of lignocellulosic biomass lies in its ability to be
transformed to clean energy, biochemical and industrial products (Lee
and Wu, 2021).
Furfural is a molecule that mainly derives from the conversion of
cellulose and hemicellulose, and it is one of the most important platform
molecules for the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels (Mar­
iscal et al., 2016). Furfural has been identified as a valuable platform
chemical that can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass. Furfural
could also be regarded as sustainable alternatives to petrochemical
various industries (Lee and Wu, 2021).
Compared with pyrolysis, hydrolysis provides more appropriate
conditions for the production of furfural, especially in the presence of
acids such as H2SO4, HCl, and H3PO4 (Gurbuz et al., 2012).
Furfural is also known as 2–furaldehyde has the chemical formula of
C4H3O–CHO, is considered to be a source of other essential furans. It is
a liquid that exhibits a light yellow color when it is freshly distilled,
however has a color range varying from yellow to dark brown; due to
exposure to sunlight and air. Moreover, it has a specific gravity of 1.16
and has a boiling point of 161.7 ◦ C and a freezing point of − 36.5 ◦ C at
760 mm mercury (Bruins, 2006). The furan ring is less aromatic than the
benzene ring as indicated by the smaller stabilization energy of furan
compared to that of benzene, 23 ± 1 kcal/mol and 37 ± 1 kcal/mol,
respectively. As a result, this makes the furan compounds generally
more reactive in ring addition reaction than the conforming benzene
equivalents (Irwin, 1990).
Rice straw is considered one of the main cereal straws. It is produced
every year in substantial amounts and it also has a high ash content and
low protein content. Following the Scandinavian pulp paper and board

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dina.ahmed@bue.edu.eg (D. Kamel).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajce.2021.08.002
Received 29 March 2021; Accepted 9 August 2021
Available online 10 August 2021
1026-9185/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
N. Sherif et al. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Table 1 steps happen in series. Since it is difficult to generalize the effect of the:
Composition of rice straw using different standard methods (Yadav et al., 2016). Concentration of hydrolyzing agent, reaction time, reaction tempera­
Components Determination Percentage mass ture, the particle size of biomass, and liquid to solid ratio on all ligno­
method fraction cellulosic materials because they exhibit different characteristics ( P.
Cellulose TAPPI T 203cm-99 38.6 Yadav et al., 2016). The furans produced from the acid hydrolysis usu­
Hemicellulose TAPPI T 203cm-99 26.4 ally have lower oxygen content than original biomass sugars, making
Glucan ASTM E 1758–01 38.82 them efficiently used as fuels. For such furans to be alike in properties
Xylan ASTM E 1758–01 19.7 further hydrogenation to larger hydrocarbons is needed to produce
Araban ASTM E 1758–01 2.6
Acetyl ASTM E 1758–01 1.1
5–hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) (Marcotullio, 2011).
Lignin ASTM E 1758–01 15.8 Sarkar et al. (2012), studied the effect of the concentration of the
Moisture content ASTM D-1106 10.47 acid, the reaction time on the production of xylose which is the inter­
Ethanol-benzene ASTM D-1107 3.8 mediate product before producing furfural and the kinetic model of this
extractives
reaction was developed to show the change in the production of xylose
Hot water extractives ASTM D-1111 5.7
Ash ASTM D-1102 10.5 with time. The rice straw to be hydrolyzed was obtained from Bankura,
India and it was dried employing air, grounded to a particle size of 0.5
mm, and kept at room temperature for later experiments. The compo­
sitions of the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin were determined to be
Table 2
40.09 ± 0.02, 26.8 ± 0.02, and 18.9 ± 0.02 percentage of dry weight,
Elemental analysis of rice straw available in Egypt (Ali et al., 2017).
respectively. As for the acid hydrolysis step, the rice straw is diluted with
Proxanal Ultanal Sulfanal
H2SO4 at a temperature of 121 ◦ C and pressure of 15 psi, 1 g of rice straw
Element (wt Element (wt%,dry Element (wt%, dry
%) basis) basis)
was treated with almost 10 ml of H2SO4 having different concentrations
at different times of reaction. From this experiment, it was observed that
Moisture(wet 10 Ash 20 Pyritic 0
the maximum xylose was released at an acid concentration of 0.24
basis)
Fixed carbon(dry 20 C 39.2 sulfate 0 mol/L and a retention time of 30 min. Besides, it was noticed that the
basis) concentration of xylose showed an inversely proportional relationship
Volatile matter(dry 60 H 3.8 Organic 100 with time. As time increased the amount of produced xylose decreased;
basis)
this could be due to the breakdown of the sugar and the production of
Ash(dry basis) 20 N 0.3
Cl 0.9
inhibitors. Moreover, Gupta et al. (2016) collected the rice straw sam­
ples from Saharanpur, India procured them, dried them in air, and
subjected it to mechanical size reduction by chopping to have a particle
size of 2–4 cm. All used chemicals were analytical grade produced by
Merk and Sigma. The rice straw hydrolysis was carried out at different
acid concentrations ranging from 0.1%− 0.6% v/v, to achieve the
maximum breakdown of hemicellulose to produce xylose the acid hy­
drolysis was optimized at different temperatures (120 ◦ C, 140 ◦ C,
160 ◦ C) and at different retention times (60 min, 90 min, and 120 min)
the bath ratio was set to be 1:8 at the given conditions for all of the tested
Fig. 1. Formulation of furfural from pentoses (Karimia et al., 2006). samples.
Not only that but also, Yadav et al. (2016) collected rice straw from
testing committee standards gas chromatography-mass spectrometry India too, after the samples are dried they are stored in an air-tight
(GC–MS) method was used to obtain general quantification of some container for future use. The acid used in this hydrolysis was phos­
saccharides within the rice straw and the results were as follows; 24.13 phoric acid, the experiments were performed in a rotating digester
mg glucose, 37.97 mg xylose, and 2.08 mg arabinose (Labib, 2017). consisting of two stainless steel cylindrical reactors inside it, each having
Moreover, according to Karimia et al. (2006) rice straw mainly contains capacity of one liter. And the optimum reaction conditions were found to
cellulose (32–47%), hemicellulose (19–27%), and lignin (5–24%). be: reaction temperature 160 ◦ C, reaction time 150 min., acid concen­
Furthermore, the glucose content in cellulose (41–43.4%) and the xylose tration 8% (w/v), and liquid-solid ratio of 6.0 (volume-mass). At these
content in hemicellulose (14.8–20.2%). It was noted by Sashikala and conditions the amount of furfural produced is 4.85 g/L. The kinetics of
Ong (2007) that at harvest the moisture content of the rice straw is the hydrolysis reaction were studied by Hua et al. ( Hua et al., 2016) at
commonly greater than 60% on wet basis and it could decrease up to an operating temperature of 160–200 ◦ C and retention time of 3 h the
10–12% in dry weather conditions and that straw contains 90% cell furfural yield was 75% at optimum conditions. The rate constant k
wall, 3% silica, and 7% extractives. According to Gupta et al. (2016), the showed a clear agreement with the Arrhenius law from 160 to 200 ◦ C.
physicochemical composition of rice straw is as follows: 16.73% ash, The highest yields of xylose were obtained at 200 ◦ C, the activation
14.32% k.lignin, 18.83% pentosane, 63.2% hollocellulose, 7.82% energy for the reaction was 68.5 kJ/mol, and the pre-exponential factor
γ-cellulose, 40.15% α-cellulose, and 14.23 β–cellulose. As for Yadav was 1.82 ×105(mol dm− 3)0.5 min− 1.
et al. (2016), the main components of rice straw were determined using Furfural was identified as a top chemical that has opportunities from
several standard ways, the results are presented in Table 1. biorefinery carbohydrates due to the high level of attention in the
Furthermore, Ali et al. (2017) stated the elemental analysis of rice literature in recent years (Lee and Wu, 2021).
straw that gives data about the characteristics of the rice straw available The market price for furfural is at $1500/tonne (Valvand et al.,
in Egypt, the elemental analysis is provided in Table 2. 2018) whereas the market demand for furfural was estimated to reach
According to Fig 1, during the hydrolysis process, the acid releases 600-kilo tonnes annually by the year 2020 (Silva et al., 2017). The
protons that can break the heterocyclic ether bonds located between the adaptability of furfural to produce multiple products (Cai et al., 2014),
different sugar monomers in the polymeric chains of celluloses and and furfural currently being an existing commercial product with a
hemicelluloses. This break of bonds leads to the production of pentose well-established commercial production from renewable carbon has the
and hexose sugars. The furfural is produced in the dehydration step, by potential to be a primary building block in biorefineries (Bozell and
dehydrating the sugars to form such degradation products, these two Petersen, 2010). Furfural can be used to derive other value-added
chemicals such as industrial solvents, pharmaceutical products, food

35
N. Sherif et al. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Table 3
Furfural production processes (Lee and Wu, 2021).
Process Temperature ( ◦ C) Pressure (bar) Catalyst Feed stock Furfural yield (%) Ref.

Westpro 160–165 _ H2SO4 Corn cobs 35–50

Superayeild 230–250 _ H2SO4 Hard wood 50–70
Quaker oats 153 5.15 H2SO4 Oat hull ≤50
ROSENLEW 180 10 Autocatalysis Bagasse 59.5
Dupont 100–250 2.1 H2SO4 Corn cobs 61–84
Shell Oil Company 150–200 ≤10 HCl Bagasse 18–53

Fig. 2. Furfural synthesis process.

additives, and monomer (Machado et al., 2016) further highlighting its
versatility.
Lee and Wu summarised in their review paper (Lee and Wu, 2021) on
furfural production, the various industrial processes to produce furfural
from different feed stock in Table. 3. The highest yield is obtained
through the Dupont process using corn cobs as a feed stock, and sul­
phuric acid as a catalyst. It should be highlighted that none of the
available commercial processes uses rice straw as a feed stock, so this
was the main drive to conduct our research work.
This research aims to synthesize an optimum process for the indus­
trial synthesis of furfural from rice straw bio-waste based on the
currently available experimental data. Most of the current research is
focused on optimization of the variables (reaction type, conditions,
retention time, and concentration of acid used) to produce furfural from
rice straw on the laboratory scale, thus, the scope of this research is to
construct a full process flow diagram (PFD) using Aspen Plus software
package for an optimum furfural synthesis process.
using an acid. Filtration of the solids residues from the filtrate is done to
avoid the fouling, corrosion and blockage in any of the following units.
The stream is then heated to be prepared for the hydrolysis in the batch
reactor, after the reaction is done the effluent stream is cooled to be
ready for the liquid-liquid extraction.
The separating agent is fed to the extractor along with the material
stream and the required material is obtained, subsequently the material
stream is fed to several/one distillation columns to ensure the proper
separation of the required material (furfural) from any additional
products (separating agent, water and any other contaminants).
The process flowsheet proposed in this work to convert rice straw
waste into furfural is shown in Fig. 2. As shown in the figure, rice straw is
first washed and dried using hot air, and then is fed into a size reduction
machine in order to obtain a practical mixture for further processing.
Then, in a number of treatment operations, rice straw is treated to be
prepared for hydrolysis with acid in a batch reactor, the products go
through cooling and separation to obtain the final product of furfural.

2. Methodology for furfural process synthesis 2.2. Developing the aspen plus model

2.1. Process synthesis
The acid hydrolysis of rice straw in the laboratory proceeds through a
number of experimental operations in order to yield furfural or chem­
icals. These operations represent the basis for process synthesis. The first
experimental step in the production is to wash and dry the rice straw,
this step is followed by mechanical size reduction of the straws. After
that, the rice straw is subjected to heat for pre-treatment in a heater
Aspen Plus® simulation software is used to perform the modeling of
furfural production from rice straw bio-waste. The detailed steps for
developing the model are presented in the algorithm in Fig. 3. Aspen
Plus, as one of the famous energy industry’s leading process simulation
platforms for process optimization in design and operations, is used by
top oil and gas producers, refineries, and engineering companies.

36
N. Sherif et al. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Fig. 3. Algorithm for developing the furfural process.

2.2.1. Collecting data from experimental results

Table 4
The rice straw has a low bulk density ranging from 50 to 120 kg/m3
Reaction kinetics and data ( Hua et al., 2016).
compared to coal, at a weight equal to 200 tons and an average bulk
density of 85 kg/m3 the resulting volume would be around 2350 m3. Reaction Reactant: 1 molecule of xylose
Products: 1 molecule of furfural and 3 water molecules
This amount of rice straw at an average hemicellulose composition of
23% by weight would provide a yield of 46 tons of hemicellulose. This Reaction class Power law
rice straw is subjected to pre-treatment by an acid to remove ash and The activation energy (E) is 68.5 kJ/mol
other unnecessary impurities. The average xylose carbohydrate Temperature (To) is 200 ◦ C
composition is 17.5% by weight providing a xylose yield of 8.05 tons of Reaction The order of reaction (n) is 1
kinetics The pre-exponential factor (A) is 1.82×105 (mol dm− 3)0.5
xylose, the de-polymerization of hemicellulose in a two-step process min− 1
occurs at mild conditions. Then the xylose produced is dehydrated The rate constant (k) is 3.0025 * 10− 4 min− 1
removing three water molecules, the dehydration of xylose results in the
decomposition of pentosanes and production of furfural. By knowing the
chemical equation of xylose conversion to furfural, the amount of (Aspen Tech, 2006)
furfural produced is expected to be 5.05 tons on the previously Since all the experiments were done on the conversion of xylose to
mentioned basis. furfural, it is assumed that depolymerization of hemicellulose to xylose
occurs at the pre-treatment phase. Thus, the reaction entered on the
2.2.2. Building the rigorous model for furfural synthesis simulation along with the reaction kinetics obtained from Hua et al.
The components entered in the components list were xylose, glucose, (2016) are those related to the conversion of xylose to furfural as pre­
arabinose, water, sulfuric acid, pentyl–benzene, furfural, and rice straw. sented in Table 4.
Rice straw was characterized as an unconventional component. The
elemental analysis data were obtained from Ali et al. (2017) and pre­ 3. Results for the simulation model
sented in Table 2.
The thermodynamic fluid package used is Peng-Robinson. The The rice straw feed stream is mixed with sulfuric acid in a mixer as
thermodynamic models are used to represent the behavior of the phase presented in Fig. 4, both entering at room temperature. Then the stream
equilibrium and the pure compound’s and the mixture system’s energy is heated to 121 ◦ C before entering the pre-treatment yield reactor. As a
level. There are some issues to consider when selecting the fluid pack­ preliminary step, the flow rate of the entering rice straw is assumed to be
age. Peng-Robinson equation of state is known to be the most enhanced 100 kg/hr and the sulfuric acid is calculated to be 12.78 l/hr both
model available on the Aspen package, it has the largest applicability in entering at pressure 1 bar.
terms of pressure and temperature, has special treatment for some key
components, and has the largest binary interaction parameter database

37
N. Sherif et al. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Fig 4. Process flow diagram on aspen plus.

3.1. Reactor simulation
Based on Ali et al. (Ali et al., 2017) the yield reactor is used to
simulate the pre-treatment step and the required yield of the compo­
nents are entered. The yields of xylose, arabinose, glucose, and water are
average values obtained from the ranges mentioned by Karimia et al.
(2006). The reaction temperature is set to be 121 ◦ C as according to
Sarkar et al. (2012) this temperature and at 15 psi the highest yields of
xylose are obtained. The yields specified were; xylose 20.2%, glucose
43%, arabinose 4.5%, water 32.3%, and sulfuric acid was the inert
component. The stream exiting the yield reactor where pre-treatment
occurred is heated to 200 ◦ C to be ready for the reaction in the batch
reactor. The reactor in simulation is selected to be isothermal along the
reaction process at 200 ◦ C and the retention time was 3 h according to
Hua et al. (2016).
The reaction yielded 12.92 kg/hr of furfural, 39.57 kg/hr of water
and there are remaining amounts of glucose, sulfuric acid, and arabinose
which were not used up in the chemical reaction. Since the streams
entering and leaving the reactor are slurry then a filter is needed as the
presence of any solid/slurry matter in the streams might cause problems
to the rest of the flowsheet’s equipment (distillation columns and liquid-
liquid extractor). The filter was modeled to be a solid separator. The
products from the filter were divided into two streams; a stream con­
taining furfural and water and a stream containing all of the other by-
products.
furfural, such as Butylbenzene which has a boiling point of 183 ◦ C, and
pentylbenzene which has a boiling point of 205 ◦ C (Haan, 2011). It is
better to use pentylbenzene in such case as the larger the difference
between the boiling point of furfural and the extraction solvent the
better the separation’s efficiency in the distillation column to extract
furfural, this gives enough time and temperature for all furfural to
vaporize leaving the extraction solvent (pentylbenzene) behind. The
pressure and temperature of the extraction process are selected so that
both streams are in their liquid state, experiments showed that out of a
temperature range less than or equal to 200 ◦ C, a temperature of 20 ◦ C
showed better results. Besides, out of a pressure range less than 25 bar,
the ambient pressure (1 bar) was the most favorable. A feed to solvent
ratio ranging from 1:2 to 2:l by weight could be used.
The stream obtained from the filter is cooled down from 200 ◦ C to
20 ◦ C to be ready for the Liquid–Liquid (L–L) extraction process, also a
stream with a flow rate of 200 kg/hr of pentylbenzene is fed to the
extraction process. The number of stages of the extraction unit was set to
10 stages.
The top stream contained almost all of the arabinose, glucose, Sul­
phuric acid, and water. While, the bottom product stream contained
pentylbenzene, furfural, and a small amount of water. The bottom
product had a temperature of 24 ◦ C, thus it was heated to 180 ◦ C to
vaporize the remaining water.
3.3. Distillation towers

3.2. Liquid–liquid extraction
It is difficult to obtain furfural from a furfural aqueous mixture by
distillation because furfural forms azeotropes with water in the total
aqueous product, thus, liquid-liquid extraction is used. According to
Haan (2011), to produce furfural a water immiscible furfural solvent
such as diethylbenzene, dipropylbenzene, dimethylethylbenzene,
butylbenzene, pentylbenzene, tetralin and isophorone could be used.
Even though methylbenzene was found to be selective to extract
furfural from the liquid aqueous phase comprising furfural along with
one or more organic acids, the fact that it has a boiling point of 111 ◦ C
makes it expensive to be recycled as it has a boiling point lower than that
of furfural 162 ◦ C. The favored aromatic hydrocarbon compounds that
include alkyl benzene are those who have an alkyl side chain that con­
tains at least 2 carbon atoms and have a higher boiling point than that of
The heated stream enters the distillation column which consists of 15
stages, with a total condenser. The specified operating specifications
were the distillate rate and the reflux ratio. Both specs values were
altered to reach the optimum furfural yield. The optimum value for the
distillate rate and the reflux ratio are 0.06 kmol/h, and, 3 respectively.
The top product from the distillation column was water which could
be treated for later use and the bottom product was the pentylbenzene
and the furfural together.
The bottom product from distillation column 1 was at 188 ◦ C and was
directly fed to distillation column 2 to separate furfural from pentyl­
benzene and to obtain it as a top product alone. The distillation column
was set to 30 stages to enhance the separation efficiency between the
two products. Also, the operating specifications specified were the reflux
ratio and the distillate rate same as distillation column 1, and a range of
values was used until the optimum combination was reached at a

Table 5
Mainstream components and flow rates .
Components in the Feed to Feed to L-L Feed to 1st distillation Feed to 2nd distillation Furfural product Pentyl benzene
streams reactorkg/h extractorkg/h columnkg/h columnkg/h streamkg/h product kg/h

Xylose 20.2 – – – – –
Glucose 43 – – – – –
Arabinose 4.5 – – – – –
Water 32.3 39.57 1.42 0.41 – –
Sulfuric acid 23.43 23.43 5.3 2.97 – 2.97
Furfural – 12.92 12.91 12.7 9.47 2.57
Pentylbenzene – 200 200 199.7 4.66 194.6

38
N. Sherif et al. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering 38 (2021) 34–40

Table 6 targets after heat integration are 401.6 cal/s and 1780.22 cal/s for
Comparison between experimental data and design data. heating and cooling, respectively. The hot pinch temperature and cold
Parameter Experimental data Simulation results pinch temperature are 131 ◦ C and 121 ◦ C, respectively.
As for the heat exchanger network, the pinch temperatures were used
Reaction temperature 200 C◦
200 ◦ C
Reaction pressure 1 bar 1 bar to divide the network into two regions above the pinch and below the
Residence time 3h 3h pinch. There are 4 streams to be heated and cooled within the process; 1
Furfural yield 75% (under optimal conditions) 73% hot stream and 3 cold streams, their data are presented in Table 7. The
hot stream is available above the pinch along with two other cold
streams. The hot stream will be used to heat the two cold streams, the
Table 7 Cph is greater than the Cpc which violates the Cp rule thus the hot stream
Heat integration data. will be split to follow the rule. The rest of the hot stream available below
Stream Supply temperature ( ◦ C) Target temperature ( ◦ C) Enthalpy (cal/s) the pinch will integrate heat with the two available cold streams and will
need further external energy to be cooled.
H1 200 20 9641.57
C1 25 121 1237.31
Fig. 5 presents the optimum heat exchanger network for the furfural
C2 121 200 2316.41 synthesis process. This optimized HEN enhanced the energy recovery
C3 24 180 4709.03 within the system; 95% of heating and 81% of the cooling duties.

distillate rate of 0.13 kmol/h and a reflux ratio of 3. Table 5 presents the
data for the main streams in the model.
4. Model validation against the experimental data
The amount of furfural obtained as a final product from the process is
9.47 kg/hr and mass fraction of 0.658, referring to the amount of
furfural produced from the batch reactor, almost 73% of it is obtained as
a final product. Moreover, 46% of the xylose fed to the batch reactor at
20.2 kg/hr was converted to furfural. In terms of molar flowrates,
0.1345 kmol/hr of xylose produced 0.098 kmol/hr of furfural, thus the
yield of furfural is 72%. Validation of the obtained results is done by
comparing them to previous studies as presented in Table 6; the yield of
furfural obtained ( Hua et al., 2016) is 75% under optimal conditions.
5. Optimization of the process through heat integration
In this process, there is one hot stream and three cold streams, heat
integration is utilized to reduce the usage of external cooling or heating
utilities. The overall heating and cooling utilities before heat integration
were 9641.57 cal/s and 8262.75 cal/s, respectively. The minimum
temperature driving force (ΔTmin) was investigated through Aspen en­
ergy analyzer software from the range of 5 ◦ C till 15 ◦ C, it was found that
the most energy saved was at ΔTmin = 5 ◦ C. Although most of the energy
is recovered at ΔTmin = 5 ◦ C, a higher pinch temperature of 10 ◦ C is used
because ΔTmin = 5 ◦ C is only used in the clean industry. The energy
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, the production of furfural from biomass is a worthy
process and needs much more attention to employ the rice agricultural
wastes economically and environmentally. The work presented in this
research also contributes to creating other sources of fuel other than
fossil fuels. The conversion process of rice straw to furfural was studied
by many researchers globally, thus, a huge library and amount of in­
formation for the lignocellulose content, the carbohydrates composition,
and the water content were utilized to reach an optimum industrial
synthesis model.
The reaction kinetics used for the reaction were; the activation en­
ergy (E) is 68.5 kJ/mol, temperature (To) is 200 ◦ C, the order of reaction
(n) is 1, the pre-exponential factor (A) is 1.82 × 105 (mol dm− 3)0.5
min− 1, the rate constant (k) is 3.0025 * 10− 4 min-1. Since furfural forms
an azeotrope mixture with water, it is difficult to be extracted from it by
simple distillation, thus, liquid-liquid extraction is used. A solvent is
used (pentylbenzene) at a flow rate of 200 kg/hr in the extraction col­
umn to obtain furfural from the mixture it formed with water. The final
stream contained an amount of 9.47 kg/hr of furfural, with an overall
recovery percentage of 73%.
Validation of the plant model against the experimental results
showed an acceptable agreement. Optimization through heat integra­
tion was performed using pinch analysis to save energy from within the
process and decrease the cost of purchasing external utilities, the process
had 4 streams; 1 hot and 3 cold streams the energy targets after

Fig. 5. Heat exchanger network.

39
N. Sherif et al.
integration are 146.6 cal/s and 1525.55 cal/s for heating and cooling,
respectively.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Nourhan Sherif: Methodology, Conceptualization, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Writing – original draft, Data curation. Mamdouh
Gadalla: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation,
Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project admin­
istration. Dina Kamel: Conceptualization, Investigation, Visualization,
Validation, Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Data curation,
Resources, Supervision, Project administration.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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