Furfural production as a renewable fuel

1.What is furfural?
Furfural is an organic compound derived from a variety of agricultural byproducts, including corncobs, oat, wheat bran, and sawdust.
The name furfural comes from the Latin word furfur, meaning bran, referring to its usual source.

Furfural is a heterocyclic aldehyde and its chemical formula is OC4H3CHO. It is a colorless oily liquid with the odor of almonds, but upon exposure to air samples quickly become
yellow.

2.The main physical constant of furfural
density:( n 20)1.1598 g/cm3
refractive index:(n 20D)1.524
boiling point:(101.325 KPa ) 161.7℃
specific gravity:(d20)1.1598
freezing point:- 36.5℃
autoignition temperature(ignition point):315℃
flashing point: 60℃
lower explosive:2.1%
upper explosive limit:19.3%

3.The uses of furfural
Furfural is an important renewable, non-petroleum based, chemical feedstock. Hydrogenation of furfural provides furfuryl alcohol (FA), which is a useful chemical intermediate
and which may be further hydrogenated to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA). THFA is used as a nonhazardous solvent in agricultural formulations and as an adjuvant to help
herbicides penetrate the leaf structure. Furfural is used to make other furan chemicals, such as furoic acid, via oxidation,[6] and furan itself via palladium catalyzed vapor
phase decarbonylation.[7] Furfural is also an important chemical solvent.

4.How to get furfural from corncob?

To crush raw material(corncob) into 15-18mm particles -->To deliver those particles by the elevator into the feeder--> To uniformly mix them with 5% dilute sulfuric acid--> To
put them into the hydrolysis reactor--> To hydrolyze them by introducing steam with 0.8-0.9MPa pressure (temperature 170 ℃, hydrolysis time 3.5h)-->To condense furfural gas
into 80-90 ℃ liquid-->To flow them into the crude distillation (continuously, normal pressure) with maintaining the bottom temperature of 103-106 ℃and the top temperature 98
-100 ℃ -->To condense the gas in the crude distillation into 50-60 ℃ liquid by branch-furfural condenser into branch furfural tank--> To neutralize the raw furfural with a
small amount of soda ash-->To flow into distillation (intermittently, negative pressure -0.08MPa)-->To get furfural (content> 99%)-->To separately flow aqueous furfural
(furfural content 11%) back into the crude distillation .