Journal
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
Volume 260, Issue -, Pages 605-615Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.09.007
Keywords
Membrane filtration; Prehydrolysate; Kraft process; Furfural biorefinery; Hemicelluloses concentration
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada University
- College I2I program and BioFuelNet Canada
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The prehydrolysate generated in the Kraft pulping process prior to cooking of wood chips can be converted into value added products such as furfural, ethanol or xylitol. To make a furfural biorefinery economically feasible, it is proposed to reduce the energy use and process equipment size by concentrating the prehydrolysate stream prior to conversion. This work demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneously concentrating the hemicellulosic sugars and acetic acid in the prehydrolysate solution from a Kraft dissolving pulp mill by nanofiltration membrane. The performances of 6 commercial organic membranes made of polyamide, cellulose acetate and polypiperazine amide polymers and of different Molecular Weights Cut Off (MWCO) were evaluated. Special attention was directed to high retention of sugars, acetic acid and furfural. A membrane with a MWCO of about 200 Da and total sugars retention of 99% was selected. Cleaning of the membrane using NaOH returned the permeate flux up to 75% of the pure water flux level prior to use. A response surface model correlating the permeate flux to the temperature and pressure of the system has been developed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available