Furfural Blog

2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF)

2011-11-24T22:23:00.001+02:00

2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF) is a safe, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective alternative to tetrahydrofuran (THF), diethyl ether, and dichloromethane (DCM). MeTHF is commercially available from Penn A Kem, LLC. It is made from renewable resources by intramolecular cyclization of pentoses and hydrogentation.

me2thf.pdf Download this file

methf5.pdf Download this file

methfrecovery4.pdf Download this file

MeTHF advantages stem equally form its physical and chemical properties: MeTHF is like THF in terms of chemical properties but resembles toluene in terms of physical properties. These advantages help reduce specific solvent consumption, carbon dioxide/VOC emissions, and energy.

The advantages of MeTHF versus THF in terms of physical properties are: • Rapid separation of two phases on work-up: avoids addition of toluene, formation of persistent milky emulsions/rag layers and wasted plant time. • Improved extraction yield: less wasted active material in water phase and less solvent. • Easy azeotropic drying at atmospheric pressure: dried azeotropically through simple distillation to yield product in a dry solution without isolation. • Easy solvent recycling: no need to fractionally distill mix of solvents or use complex recovery and drying in set of columns at different pressures.

The advantages of MeTHF versus THF in terms of chemical properties: • Higher reaction yields: e.g benzyl organogrignard 20% yield increase. • Higher stability to basic conditions: e.g. stability to n-BuLi improved by a factor of seven. • Higher stability to acidic conditions: e.g. stability to aqueous protic acids improved more than six times during work-up. • Smaller reactor volumes: MeTHF has excellent solvent properties allowing for highly concentrated solutions of some organometallic reagents. • Elimination of excess reagents: e.g. eliminates the need for excess magnesium in difficult organogrignard reactions.

Conclusion: MeTHF reduces the environmental footprint and production costs. This is why global companies are setting up programs to replace the use of the more traditional solvents with MeTHF.

China and Singapore battle it out for Proserpine sugar mill | The Australian

2011-11-21T08:18:00.001+02:00

China and Singapore battle it out for Proserpine sugar mill

by: Andrew Fraser

From: The Australian

November 19, 2011 12:00AM

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Sugar harvesting at Bargara, east of Bundaberg in Queensland. Canegrowers are far better off now than they were a few years ago Source: The Australian

Source: The Australian

WHAT 300 cane farmers across Proserpine in north Queensland saw this week would have been impossible a decade ago.

Here were two Asian syndicates locked in a bidding war for their mill, guaranteeing more money for the farmers, who still own the mill as a co-operative.
The sale is a clash of the old and the new.
The potential buyers are China's COFCO and Singapore's Sucrogen, both competing for control of a sugar mill built in 1897 because of the financial commitment provided under the Sugar Works Guarantee Act of 1893.
Until 2006, when the final piece of deregulation was put in place, Australia's sugar industry was largely governed by 19th-century or early 20th-century legislation, the main governing instrument being the Sugar Acquisition Act and Regulation of Sugar Cane Prices Act of 1915.

Under this legislation, a licence was needed to grow sugar cane and the entire crop was compulsorily acquired by the government, which handed it over to the Colonial Sugar Refinery to be sold on the international market.
Throughout the 20th century, whenever the chill winds of international competition blew through the industry, CSR had the political clout to get bailed out by the government and avoid the sort of reform that all other Australian industries went through.
In modern times there has been the 1986 sugar industry assistance package and another in 1993.
And in 2004, under political pressure in the sugar seats of north Queensland, John Howard put forward the $444.4 million sugar industry reform program.
But Australia's sugar industry has changed dramatically since then as paternal agrarian socialism has been upturned.
The assistance package provided money for smaller farmers to leave the industry and they did: there are now only about 4000 cane farmers in Australia, as opposed to 6000 in 2004.
The size of the average farm has increased and produces about 7000 tonnes of sugar, as opposed to less than 5000 beforehand.
And there are now just 24 sugar mills, as opposed to 31.
Mill ownership is where there has been the greatest change.
The Proserpine Mill is a good example of the industry standard, being fairly old and owned by a local co-operative, which was effectively given the mill by the state government.
The first overseas investment in milling came about 20 years ago when Tate & Lyle bought Bundaberg Sugar and picked up two mills, but that was the only overseas investment until about two years ago.
CSR's decision to focus on its building materials interests and get out of sugar meant its seven refineries in the most productive part of the sugar belt were for sale and Singapore's Wilmar beat off China's Bright Food Group last year, paying $1.75 billion for them.
There has been a recent wave of activity and in July China's state-owned COFCO bought the Tully mill for $136m.
As a measure of international interest in Australia's mills, the other bidders were US agribusiness Bunge and local company Mackay Sugar, which had formed an alliance with European agribusiness company Louis Dreyfus.
Earlier this week, the Maryborough Sugar board, which runs three mills in north Queensland and another at Maryborough in southeastern Queensland, recommended that shareholders accept a $313m takeover offer from Thai-based Mitr Phol.
And the fate of Proserpine is still unclear: on Wednesday, Sucrogen announced it had reached an agreement with the mill's administrators to buy it for $120m, but since then COFCO has upped its offer to $128m. The administrator, KordaMentha, was not returning calls yesterday.
Just after 4.30pm on Thursday, COFCO issued a media release saying it had increased its offer by $3m to $125m, and a little more than one hour later issued another saying it had increased its offer to $128m: $3m in an hour! The farmers were getting excited.
Farmers still in the industry are far better off now than they were a few years ago, the rise in world prices probably being of more benefit to them than deregulation.
World prices a few years ago were about $300 a tonne, but Queensland Sugar, the body now marketing most of the sugar crop overseas, is predicting prices will stay around $500 to $550 a tonne for the next season.
QSL is another feature of the new sugar landscape: in the world of deregulation, individual mills do not have to hand over their crop, and Maryborough Sugar opted out to market its own crop.
But QSL's acting chief executive Greg Beashel, who has a history in the sugar industry and worked for the old CSR, says deregulation has had a big effect on the company.
"We are aware that people have more choice and we want them to have that choice," he says.
"I think it's made us a lot sharper as a company, and we've moved into some new areas of marketing that we might not have had the incentive to beforehand."
Beashel says the long-term outlook for Australia's sugar industry is good, largely because the world needs an extra two million tonnes of sugar each year on top of the 130 million tonnes that is the present size of the global market.
"A lot of that extra demand is coming from Asia, and we're closer to that market than Brazil, which is the world's biggest producer," he says.
"But world prices are largely set by the cost of production in Brazil, and that's going up while our costs are fairly stable."
Australia will export only about 2.3 million tonnes this year, well down from more than three million tonnes it has been exporting in recent years, because of a summer of natural disasters, under which cyclones Yasi and Anthony flattened much of the crop.
But Canegrowers chief executive Steve Greenwood says although deregulation has led to fewer cane farmers, numbers are beginning to build back up again because there is a clearer future for the industry.
"Only a few years ago we had an industry that was largely protected, but we've now got a highly efficient industry that competes well on the world stage," he says.
Greenwood sums up the views of many farmers when he says it would have been preferable for Australian companies to have bought into the sugar-processing sector, but overseas investment is preferable to no investment.
"It's a bit of a shame that no Australian company has been able to see the value in our milling sector," he says.

via theaustralian.com.au

How to stop nematodes damaging turf grass (Golf Club Management)

2011-11-14T23:10:00.001+02:00

Tests have demonstrated that 2-furfuraldehyde (furfural), a pentose sugar derivative, can act as a contact nematicide and can be effective in reducing populations of plant-parasitic nematodes. A number of organic fertilisers based on complex sugar formulations contain varying amounts of furfural and recent field trials have shown that nematode populations can be suppressed, with turf quality improving significantly after fertiliser application. Formulations containing higher levels of furfural are currently being considered by regulatory authorities for approval as nematicides.

via golfclubmanagement.net

Furfural and Its Many By-Products

2011-11-07T00:38:00.001+02:00

Ref.: www.biosynergy.eu

More: www.dalinyebo.com/byproducts

Outlook for Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill sours as company teeters on brink of administration

2011-11-05T03:23:00.001+02:00

Image via Wikipedia

THE Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill was teetering on the brink of administration late yesterday.

Its major lenders are understood to have demanded their money back and talks with Chinese suitor COFCO, about a refinancing ahead of a purchase of the mill, are apparently still in limbo. Proserpine had been given until Thursday night to repay CSR's former sugar division, Sucrogen - owned by Singapore-based agrigroup Wilmar - $15 million that Sucrogen had lent it to underpin its working capital after Sucrogen agreed to buy the struggling group's assets for $115 million.

At the same time, Westpac - believed to be owed as much as $65 million - had given up on Proserpine's bids to sell itself and demanded its money back.

The Sucrogen deal, backed by Proserpine's board, had over the past couple of months been put to a vote of Proserpine's members.

And twice it failed to get the required 75 per cent majority in favour. At the same time, talks between COFCO and Proserpine had failed to forge a deal that the Proserpine board was willing to back, despite COFCO insisting it had matched, and probably bettered, Sucrogen's offer for the group.

With Sucrogen having demanded its money back, Proserpine had renewed negotiations with COFCO.

COFCO Australia deputy chairman Keith De Lacy said late yesterday he was "hopeful COFCO would still be able to put an acceptable proposal (to Proserpine)".

But both COFCO and Sucrogen may find themselves negotiating if they continue their quests to buy Proserpine with an administrator.

The Proserpine board has long warned members that administration was the end-game if a sale of the mill wasn't quickly concluded.

Westpac would then undoubtedly appoint a receiver, and while the mill is an attractive asset, it could well eventually be sold at less than the co-op members could have got through direct deals with Sucrogen or COFCO.

If an administrator is appointed, the mill would breach its supply agreement with Queensland Sugar Ltd - the industry's marketer.

---------------------------------------------- related articles ----------------------------------------------------------

Battle for Proserpine Sugar turns bitter

CHINESE-owned Tully Sugar has not given up its quest to take over the Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill despite Proserpine's recommendation of an alternative bid from Singapore-controlled Sucrogen, CSR's former sugar division.

Mill sells to Singapore over Chinese

DIRECTORS of the Proserpine Sugar Mill have decided to stick with their planned $115 million asset sale to Singapore-owned Sucrogen, despite conceding a counter offer from Chinese-controlled Tully Sugar could provide Proserpine sugar growers with a higher payout.

'Legal uncertainties' in bid for mill

AN independent expert's report on competing bids for the assets of the Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill reckons mill members would face an uncertain commercial outcome if they went with the Tully Sugar-COFCO bid, due to material legal uncertainties in that offer.

via couriermail.com.au

New catalytic process to convert furfural to octane at high yields

2011-11-05T00:49:00.001+02:00

New catalytic process to convert furfural to octane at high yields

3 November 2011

Researchers at the Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, East China University of Science and Technology, report on a catalytic process to convert biomass-derived furfural (earlier post) into octane in high yields at relatively low pressures and temperatures.
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In the three-step process, two bifunctional catalysts, Pt/Co₂AlO₄ and Pt/NbOPO₄, play crucial roles in achieving C₈-ols from 4-(2-furyl)-3-buten-2-one and transforming the C₈-ols into octane, respectively.

Click to enlarge.

Their paper is published in the journal ChemSusChem.

Resources

Wenjie Xu, Qineng Xia, Yu Zhang, Yong Guo, Yanqin Wang, Guanzhong Lu (2011) Effective Production of Octane from Biomass Derivatives under Mild Conditions. ChemSusChem. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201100361

via greencarcongress.com

Study Concludes That Best Way for a Biorefinery to Exploit Potential of Biomass Feedstock Is To Produce Ethanol, Furfural and FT-Diesel

2011-11-05T00:39:00.001+02:00

Study Concludes That Best Way for a Biorefinery to Exploit Potential of Biomass Feedstock Is To Produce Ethanol, Furfural and FT-Diesel

18 March 2010

Results obtained for the selected biorefinery systems. Credit: ACS, Cherubini and Strømman. Click to enlarge.

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have developed a calculation procedure to estimate the maximum theoretical yields, as well as predictions of the conversion efficiencies in terms of mass, carbon, and energy efficiency, of selected biorefinery production chains.

Based on their calculations, they concluded that the best way to exploit all the potentials of a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock seems to be the production of ethanol from C6 polysaccharides, furfural from C5 polysaccharides, and FT-diesel from lignin. Combining the best feedstock with the most promising final products, their results show that up to 0.33 kg of bioethanol, 0.06 kg of furfural, and 0.17 kg of FT (Fischer-Tropsch)-diesel per kg of softwood can be produced and that mass, carbon, and energy conversion efficiencies of 56%, 70%, and 82%, respectively, can be achieved.
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A paper on their study was published online 17 March in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

Francesco Cherubini and Anders Hammer Strømman selected lignocellulosic biomass as the raw material for their exercise. They calculated the carbon contents of lignocellulosic biomass components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) and products with the help of mathematical equations, and then modeled the chemical reactions for the conversion of feedstock to products using matrix algebra. The procedure determines the maximum amount of biofuels and/or biochemicals from biomass and the maximum mass, energy, and carbon conversion efficiency of the biorefinery pathway.

The team worked with three types of biorefinery systems:

Biofuel-oriented biorefinery, where the products are ethanol (from C5 and C6 polysaccharides) and FT-diesel (from lignin).

Chemical-oriented biorefinery, where the products are levulinic acid (from C6 polysaccharides), furfural (from C5 polysaccharides), and phenols (from lignin).

Biorefinery based on gasification of the entire feedstock to produce FT-fuels.

Among their findings:

The largest biofuel and biochemical yields are achieved with those feedstocks and components that have the lowest oxygen content and the highest carbon and hydrogen content, such as softwood. As a consequence, they note, the ethanol yield from C5/C6 polysaccharides is lower than that from the entire feedstock (which includes lignin), because sugars have a higher oxygen content.

The possibility to exploit lignin for biofuel production purposes strongly affects the biofuel yield. In fact, there is a great potential for the production of FT-diesel from lignin, since this is the substrate with the highest carbon content,with hydrogen acting as the limiting factor.

On a mass basis, ethanol has higher production potential than FT-diesel, but this margin strongly decreases if the energy content of the product is considered (ethanol has a heating value of 27 MJ/kg, whereas FT-diesel has a heating value of 42.7MJ/kg). The first-law energy efficiencies (defined as the ratio between the energy content of the products to the energy content of the feedstock) are ~90% for ethanol and ~85% for FT-diesel.

Even with the lowest mass efficiency (41%, versus 54% for the biofuel-oriented biorefinery), the gasification system produces a carbon-rich product that has a much higher heating value than that of ethanol, and, therefore, the resulting carbon and energy conversion efficiencies are higher than that for the biofuel-oriented biorefinery.

An overall interpretation of these theoretical results leads to some important remarks concerning the best way in which the three biomass components of a lignocellulosic feedstock should be exploited. Regarding C5 sugars, yields of furfural are higher than those of ethanol; furthermore, C5 polysaccharides conversion to ethanol still must face non-negligible technological constraints and effective yields are lower than those of the C6 polysaccharides. Hence, regarding the biomass sugar fraction, the best treatment pathways seem to be the conversion of C6 sugars to ethanol and C5 sugars to furfural, from which a wide spectrum of biofuels and chemicals can be synthesized.

Concerning the third component of a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock, the lignin, the best alternative seems to be the conversion to FT-diesel via gasification...Even if almost half of the mass of the feedstock is lost (as CO₂), the final products still have 70% of the carbon and 82% of the energy content of the raw materials.

...the best way to exploit all the potentialities of a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock seems to be the production of ethanol from C6 polysaccharides, furfural from C5 polysaccharides, and FT-diesel from lignin.
—Cherubini and Strømman

Resources

Francesco Cherubini and Anders Hammer Strømman (2010) Production of Biofuels and Biochemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass: Estimation of Maximum Theoretical Yields and Efficiencies Using Matrix Algebra. Energy Fuels, Article ASAP doi: 10.1021/ef901379s

via greencarcongress.com

50 Days to COP17 | CMP7

2011-10-08T02:50:00.001+02:00

UNFCCC's COP17 | CMP7 starts in Durban in 50 days. 388 days ago we presented Coblec to CTI PFAN Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing. CTI PFAN was initiated by the Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) in cooperation with the Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)! CTI PFAN rates our project as an investment ready (see project #91).

DalinYebo was placed a runner-up at the CTI PFAN Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing and was the first South African company in a competition that saw ±60 entries from across the African continent. The joint winners were submissions made be a Greenewus Energy Africa Ltd (Uganda) and Barefoot Power (Australia), respectively. See www.dalinyebo.com/CTI_PFAN_AFRICEF.

CTI_PFAN_Project_Pipeline_June_2011.pdf Download this file

Furfural at Proserpine - Update

2011-10-05T02:19:00.002+02:00

"There are a number of reasons as to why the commissioning of the furfural plant has not been completed", says Ian McBean, more ...

Battle for Proserpine Sugar turns bitter

2011-10-03T00:52:00.001+02:00

OVERSEAS PLAY: Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill is at the centre of a power play between Chinese-owned Tully Sugar and Sucrogen. Picture: Graeme Parkes Source: The Courier-Mail

CHINESE-owned Tully Sugar has not given up its quest to take over the Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill despite Proserpine's recommendation of an alternative bid from Singapore-controlled Sucrogen, CSR's former sugar division.

Tully Sugar on Friday hit out at what it dubbed "Sucrogen's current campaign to pressure members to vote for its offer or risk financial uncertainty for the mill and a reduced return to growers".

Tully said that claim - backed by Proserpine's board when it recommended a vote in favour of Sucrogen's offer - was inaccurate and purposely ignored the strength of Tully's alternative bid.

Tully Sugar deputy chairman John Amies claimed Sucrogen had in recent days suggested Proserpine members could end up $10 million worse off if they didn't support Sucrogen's offer in a vote towards the end of this month. "We can't see how Sucrogen could arrive at this conclusion given the Proserpine board has said that Proserpine could be financially better off by $3.8 million under the Tully offer," Mr Amies said.

"Tully is offering a clear and certain financial outcome - we have the funding arrangements in place to provide immediate financial assistance to the mill to repay its debts as and when they fall due, while leaving a greater return for members than Sucrogen is proposing.

"So, anyone arguing that the mill is at risk of administration or the members are facing financial uncertainty as a result of our offer is not accurately reflecting the true nature of what we are offering."

Sucrogen has signed an agreement to pay $115 million for Proserpine's assets.

Tully has offered $120 million, but there has been debate over which bid would provide mill members with the best payout, with both Sucrogen and Tully saying they are committed to locking in the value of members' equity at the end of the 2011 crush season later this year.

via couriermail.com.au

NB: Member's vote will be know at the end of October. So we wait: http://is.gd/fcn37e

Proserpine Sugar Future Uncertain

2011-08-31T09:35:00.002+02:00

Members of the Proserpine Sugar Mill have voted to reject a $115 million bid to save the ailing north Queensland More...

Furfural Based Nematicide

2011-08-10T17:35:00.000+02:00

From KZN Industrial & Business News: (June/July 2011)

Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation of lignocellulosic residues from commercial furfural production

2011-08-05T01:03:00.003+02:00

We state in dalinyeb.com/bbs:
Cellulosic Ethanol (Pre-treatment): The “BBS” plug-in removes the pentosans More...

Sale of Proserpine Mill

2011-06-03T16:57:00.003+02:00

Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Milling Association Limited (PCSMA) wishes to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Wilmar International more

Furfural formation from D-xylose ... allows for exceptionally high yields

2011-05-19T09:46:00.003+02:00

Abstract

Starting from the results achieved in a previous work on the effects of Cl^- ions on furfural formation in aqueous acid solution [Marcotullio, G. et al., Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1739], the general effect of different halides is addressed. Experimental results show ... http://j.mp/lemz2D

Graphical abstract

Renewal of EU Duty on Furfuraldehyde From China

2011-05-05T12:25:00.000+02:00

Twitter / @DalinYebo.Bio'Chem: Renewal of EU Duty on Furf ...

Sustainable Alternative to Tropical Hardwoods

2011-02-06T22:23:00.002+02:00

Kebony, a Norwegian company, developed the sustainable alternative to teak and other prized tropical hardwoods through research and development in Norway, Sweden and Canada. Kebony wood products can be used for decks, cladding, roofs, windows, both indoor and outdoor furniture and other construction materials. more ...

Kebony's award-winning sustainable alternative to rainforest timber

Biodiesel From Furfural

2011-02-04T13:52:00.001+02:00

A team at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) has designed a new simple, energy-efficient process (that also does not require any ... more

Green Energy Park: Converting Biomass to Chemicals (Furfural) and Energy

2011-01-23T19:34:00.003+02:00

A new approach in developing furfural production:

also see www.GreenEnergyPark.co.za.

The chemistry and technology of furfural and its many by-products, by Karl Zeitsch

2011-01-09T13:31:00.003+02:00

With his book, Karl certainly achieved "to arouse the interest and inventiveness of a new generation, to the end of moving the field of furfural and its by-products into the limelight it deserves" (Epilogue, p. 334). Over the last ten years, some new products and production capacities have been introduced and the basis has been created so that over the two years new capacity will come online that will support the expanatial growth these by-products will have. more

Proserpine Mill closed for the season

2010-11-24T12:04:00.002+02:00

The 2010 cane crushing season has been one to forget. Cyclone Ului in March left its mark by increasing the amount of dirt brought into the factory more

Green Composites

2010-10-31T19:21:00.006+02:00

Renewable materials like furfuryl alcohol, palmitic acid, and jute were used for the first time to develop green biocomposites. Furfuryl ester of palmitic acid was prepared by more

Toxic Agricultural Chemicals Can Be Replaced ..

2010-10-25T08:59:00.004+02:00

.. by e.g. Furfural! More ..

Space Shuttle and Furfuryl Alcohol

2010-10-14T14:27:00.002+02:00

Application that demonstrate scope and performance of 'Furfural and its many By-Products" (Xplore Science World Blog): more

Production of linear alkane via hydrogenative ring opening of a furfural-derived compound in supercritical carbon dioxide

2010-09-28T08:48:00.001+02:00

Furfural and its many By-Products: "A simple method has been described to accomplish the formation of linear alkane with >99% selectivity in supercritical carbon dioxide More...

Electricity from Corncob wins Recognition in Africa - What has that got to do with Furfural?

2010-09-19T11:38:00.002+02:00

We're developing the first corncob to electricity project in South Africa. Once operational, a ±25% increase of biomass supply will allow us to add a biorefinery for a biomass to furfural conversion (see Cobchem™), which leaves a residue suitable for continued co-generation of electricity. The biorefinery will add significant revenue to Cobelec™ from the sales of the biobased chemicals. The concept of co-production of power and furfural is not new (NB: Both, Arcoy and PSM Biorefinery, co-generate electricity, using bagasse and furfural residue), however, our innovative integration of technologies is: The resulting business plan has turned out to be an award winning proposition for a cleantech investment: 1st SA Company: Runner-up at CTI PFAN Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing More...

Chloride ions enhance furfural formation from D-xylose in dilute aqueous acidic solutions

2010-09-08T17:23:00.005+02:00

A fellow researcher (Gianluca Marcotullio, PhD promovendus, Delft University of Technology) who shares our passion for furfural, advised us today about the More...

Furfural Plant ready to go

2010-09-04T23:47:00.002+02:00

It's a remarkable time at the Proserpine Sugar Mill. C-E-O John Power says in a matter of days production at the furfural plant could be up and running. 'It's certainly very More...

Carbonaceous poly(furfuryl alcohol) membrane (CPFA)

2010-08-22T12:43:00.001+02:00

Just another use of the many by-products of furfural:

"A novel carbonaceous poly(furfuryl alcohol) membrane (CPFA) was fabricated by partially carbonizing a poly(furfuryl alcohol) (PFA) ...
... Currently available polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis membranes exhibit a poor resistance to continual exposure to chlorine ... Carbon based membrane can be a good candidate as highly chlorine resistance membrane, cause its high chemical stability" more ..

From Furfural to Liquid Alkanes (Transportation Fuels or Long Chain Organic Compounds)

2010-08-13T15:27:00.009+02:00

Furfural Molecule

2010-08-11T12:18:00.012+02:00

Check out this 2D and 3D rendering of the Furfural Molecule (www.chemspider.com).

original is at http://www.chemspider.com/ImageView.aspx?id=13863629&mode=3d

Corncobs to Electricity .. and Furfural

2010-07-25T14:58:00.013+02:00

More than 80% of global furfural production is made from Corncobs, using outdated (= 'dirty') technology and outdated harvesting methodologies. Others have written about the threat (see our explanations) to that industry, we provide solutions:

Mechanical harvesting and storage

Clean and efficient furfural extraction from the biomass (corncobs), prior to

Co-generation of electricity

The combination of the above allows us to manufacture furfural at the lowest and most stable cost, 24/7 and 365 days per year.

That is why we are looking for corncobs (in South Africa and elsewhere) in order to turn them in to value added chemicals and energy (electricity).

Do you have any? Please contact us.

2010-07-18T13:28:00.001+02:00

Celebrating Madiba (92) http://bit.ly/dnTrbe

New Furfural Manufacturing Plants

2010-05-12T21:45:00.004+02:00

Last Friday the official opening took place of the Proserpine Sugar Mill (PSM) furfural plant (http://tinyurl.com/3agnz55) and yesterday Acroy Biorefinery reported on the good commissioning progress: First (raw) furfural was made, using the SupraYield process (no stripping steam!). See http://tinyurl.com/3agnz55

Furfural and its role in Earthquake Resistant Building Materials

2010-03-11T20:27:00.006+02:00

from a DalinYebo tweet:

Polymers based on furfural, furfuryl alcohol, or furan. Fulfural is the starting material for. all of these compounds. The chemical resistance of furan resins has been used for many. years to advantage in chemical cements.

URL: http://tinyurl.com/ycy5dvk

SupraYield made First Furfural

2010-02-13T12:23:00.002+02:00

Saturday, 23 January 2010

Proserpine commissions furfural plant

The North Queensland Registered reports on the start-up of PSM Biorefinery: REALISING their future depended on the mill producing more than raw sugar the Proserpine Cooperative More...

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Proserpine produces Furfural

Proserpine Sugar commissioned the digestors in November 2009, producing furfural from bagasse.The plant, which is highly automated, worked well.Due to important maintenance tasks More...

Furfural plant nearly ready

2009-08-27T09:07:00.001+02:00

27 August 2009: The Whitsunday Times reports:

THE Proserpine Sugar Mill furfural plant, the first of it kind in Australia, will start production in September. Proserpine Co-op Sugar Milling Association chief executive officer John Power said furfural commissioning had started and so far those items of the plant that have been tested have operated as planned with only a few minor problems detected.

“This week we will be testing the digestors and conducting the final curing of them before we commence testing the production process,” he said.

“We will initially operate the digesters at a lower temperature and pressure and produce xylose; a non-hazardous pre-cursor to furfural.

“This allows the final testing and checking of the plant to be undertaken without the added complexity of furfural being present.

“Once all the material handling problems are solved then the production of furfural can start.”

Furfural is a solvent created by the milling process and is used to make a range of products including paint and pharmaceuticals. Proserpine Co-op Sugar Milling Association will now hold a series of meetings to provide residents the opportunity to learn more about its new furfural plant. The meetings will be held at the Mill Social Club and will start this Sunday.

Residents who live within 500 metres of the plant have been sent an invitation and other people involved with the Proserpine Sugar Mill have also been invited.

Bioprocessing Centre Of Competence: DalinYebo Innovation Nucleus (DIN)

2009-03-01T20:43:00.009+02:00

27 February 2008, Durban (South Africa) - DalinYebo Innovation (Pty) Ltd introduces its plans for a Bioprocessing R&D Centre. DalinYebo Innovation Chief Operating Officer, Prof. Dave Arnold: "The essential technical challenge facing us, and the world in general, is the complete beneficiation of cellulosic material. We are aware of many R&D facilities that are trying to convert lignocellulosic components into ethanol and using the residue as a coal-substitute fuel source. We are not, however, aware of any R&D groups that are focusing on adding value to all the components of lignocelluloses as chemicals that are articles of commerce (as opposed to potentially saleable ones, or curiosities)."

DalinYebo Innovation have developed a business proposal, derived from successful research, and based on our novel approach to converting, chemically, all the parts of agricultural waste, crops and other such resources. To do that we propose a versatile laboratory and pilot plant complex dedicated to research, development, innovation and business development. This unique facility could be based at any university, so that the usual services such as workshops, libraries and access to public funds can be combined with student assistance, bursaries and higher degrees. The convergence of highly skilled and competent experts is most important. Thus, the DalinYebo Innovation Nucleus will be a unique and highly productive (national!) asset and over the next 5 to 10 years generate new employment as part of multi billion US$ sustainable businesses and as a direct consequence of our innovations. ... read more

Proserpine Updates on Furfural Project Progress

2008-11-11T17:40:00.000+02:00

11 November 2008, Proserpine (Queensland, Asutralia) - At a recent briefing of the members of Proserpine Cooperative Sugar Mill, CEO of the Sugar Mill & Biorefinery, John Power, provided an update on the progress of the construction of the new bagasse drier and furfural plant that are scheduled to go into production during the 2009
crushing season.

Comparison: Furfural - Ethanol - Gasoline

2008-10-11T11:29:00.011+02:00

From Furfural

In response to a comment on our previous post, we generated the above table, comparing calorific values of gasoline, ethanol and furfural as well as current, October 2008, costs (per US gallon).

NB: Links to conversion tables:

Uconeer (download)
Converter.eu (online)
Oil Industry Conversions (online)

Distinguish between Furfural and Furanics

2008-08-23T16:11:00.006+02:00

FURANICS:
Furanics is a general term for furan-based materials/liquids. Furans are molecules whose basic unit is an aromatic ring made of one oxygen and four carbon atoms (NB: Extremely Toxic!). The main product researchers recently/often refer to by Furanics are mixtures with 5-chloromethylfurfural (CMF), which is derived from C6-carbon-hydrates (Cellulose -> Sugar)

FURFURAL:
Furfural has been commercial produced from hemicellulose (pentosans, to be precise), since 1922 from biomass (mainly from oat hulls, corn cobs and sugarcane bagasse). - It is an industrial chemical and has a toxic classification (and to our knowledge - and over 80 years of production history - there is no known death or occupational health damage!).

Furfural is also a flavour and has since 1996 a FEMA GRAS (generally regarded as safe .. for human consumption) rating.

It occurs naturally in and is separated by our bodies (a Vit. C breakdown product)! - Furfural is a platform chemical and a feedstock that has the ability to substitutes a variety oil/coal/gas derived products. It is used as rocket fuel, but at a current (2Q08) US$1900 per metric ton, it is rather expensive to run a motor car (NB: In South Africa, cars were experimentally run on furfural(derivatives)!)

Over the years, furfural plants have closed all over the world. Cost of feedstock and the fact that the plants are producing a high COD effluent, were some of the reasons. The challenge that we have addressed is the development of technology to make furfural more efficiently and at lower costs without the high COD waste streams. The first plant using this technology is now under construction (in Australia: It will meet the stringent environmental and safe operations criteria!) and the second one under design (for an Indian client).

One of the reasons we have developed (and are continuing developing) new technologies for the conversion of non-food crops (that do not interfere with the water cycles) has a lot to do with the fact that Furfural derivatives (furanics) are also a platform for next generation fuels

Indian Company chooses SupraYield® License: Process to Manufacture Furfural

2008-08-08T00:11:00.003+02:00

Proserpine (Queensland, Australia), 19 July 2008 - Arcoy Biorefinery Private Limited (India) has chosen the novel SupraYield® technology to manufacture furfural as feedstock for their new Furfuryl Alcohol manufacturing facility. On behalf of Proserpine Cooperative Sugar Milling Association (PCSMA), DalinYebo Trading and Development (Pty) Ltd has negotiated PCSMA’s first sale outside Australia of the new SupraYield® process, which is the operating system for the new furfural plant being constructed at Proserpine (Queensland, Australia). more ...

Sorghum: Africa's biggest oil producer goes green

2008-05-06T21:33:00.001+02:00

4 May 2008

LAGOS (AFP) — In his office in Lagos, Alain Salleras, a Frenchman of about 50 for whom biofuels are something of a crusade, is working away at his pet project -- producing ethanol from sweet sorghum in Nigeria.

Salleras, executive director of Global Biofuels Ltd, which has partnered with India's Praj Industries and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for its project, is at pains to pre-empt any questions on the growing controversy over the alleged impact of biofuels on agriculture.

"Contrary to manioc, sorghum, of which Nigeria is the world's leading producer, has no impact on food supply," Salleras emphasised.

Indeed, if he is to be believed, sweet sorghum has only advantages over sugar cane, another crop often grown for biofuels.

He says sorghum requires one quarter of the water that sugar cane needs, it produces two or three harvests a year, you get far more ethanol per hectare under cultivation -- nearly four times as much in fact -- and there is no wastage.

"To make the ethanol we only take the stalks, which are rich in sugar. The grains go for food and the rest for animal fodder," he says.

Even the fibrous residue from the crushed stalks, known as "bagasse," is recycled. This biomass is boiled to produce steam to make electricity.

Global Biofuels has taken on a Nigerian specialist Babatunde Obilana, who spent 20 years with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), working notably on Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Salleras, a former executive with French construction company Vinci, the former Société Générale d'Entreprises, and compatriot Jean Lamoliatte aim to be producing their first litre of sorghum-based Nigerian ethanol next summer.

In Ondo state to the west of Lagos the sorghum seeds have been sown at Arigidi Akoko and the processing plant will be built by Praj Industries, a biofuels technology company.

Initally Salleras is expecting daily production of 9,000 litres. That is estimated to rise to 240,000 litres a day when the full 10,000 hectares of sweet sorghum are ready for harvest.

By this summer 300 hectares will be ready for harvest and by April or May of next year between 3,000 and 6,000 will be ready.

This is still a far cry from the 30 million litres of fuel consumed every day in Nigeria, but the boss of Global Biofuels has big ambitions.

In three to five years' time he is aiming to produce five percent of Nigeria's total consumption, that is around 1.5 million litres a day.

Global Biofuels plans to establish seven ethanol refineries, each with an associated plant for livestock feed production, in various parts of Nigeria. Each refinery/feed plant will jointly employ 8,000 Nigerians and create an additional 40,000 indirect jobs, the company says.

"It's the first in a long series of projects, in line with the Kyoto Protocol engagements which stipulate that by 2020 10 percent of energy consumed must be of non-fossile origin," Salleras explained.

Construction work on the second of the seven plants will start in June in Ekiti, a state sharing a common border with Ondo.

The Ondo state project alone represents an investment of some 70 million dollars, 65 percent of which is from private investors. The rest will be financed by credits.

NNPC has undertaken to buy all Global Biofuels' production in Nigeria and plans to use it for automobile fuel and for powering breweries and pharmaceuticals plants.

Nigeria, which despite being Africa's biggest oil producer, suffers from a chronic fuel shortage, is counting on biofuels to help solve the problem.

NNPC in 2005 created a Renewable Energy Division (RED) tasked with developping biofuels from manioc or sugar cane, two crops that are abundant in Nigeria.

The unit aims to have a prosperous national biofuels industry up and running by the middle of 2012.

Ref.: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jyMqBW1AH_yRymGauLEp7pVwtCuA

AFP: Africa's biggest oil producer goes green

2008-05-06T20:50:00.000+02:00

AFP: Africa's biggest oil producer goes green

The paddy residue extracted during milling ... furfural ...

2007-11-26T19:41:00.001+02:00

Furfural form Rice husks ‘for Africa’?

... as GTZDO sets to produce 18 million tonnes of rice for Africa
Vanguard - Apapa,Lagos,Nigeria
The paddy residue extracted during milling could also be processed to obtain rice flour, vegetable oil, furfural and fertilizer.

DalinYebo reports sharp Chinese Furfural price increase

2007-09-10T14:58:00.000+02:00

From dalinyebo.co.za [2007 Chinese Furfural Market Update (January to May) – Summary]:

14 July 2007 - Average FOB price for the period January 2007 to May 2007 was US$784/t.

The average for the month of May jumped to US$825/t, followed in June by price levels that have been last seen 10 years ago.

Register and/or login for the details.

IFT Announces A Significant Transaction

2007-09-06T23:00:00.000+02:00

On the 8 August 2007, we announced that International Furan Technology (Pty) Ltd concluded a significant transaction with Proserpine Corporate Sugar Milling Association (QLD, Australia). There is no doubt in our mind that this transaction strengthens the SupraYield technology and provides additional support on our market and project development front. From 3Q08 onwards we’ll be able to offer our prospective customers access to a working plant and opportunities to test their feedstock under production conditions. The pilot plants remain in South Africa and we continue to maintain the co-operation with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, focusing on the furfural and furfuryl alcohol down-stream products and application development.

Furfural

2007-09-06T19:09:00.000+02:00

"Furfural and its many byproducts" have been the basis of the DalinYebo (Xhosa: Wealth Generation) business.

We have developed new technology for the manufacture of furfural and have R&D programs in place for the development of technology for the manufacture of downstream products as well as inovative furfural applications