Adamu A

Boodhoo K

Russo Abegão F

English

Newcastle University E-Prints

Scaling Up Dehydration of Sugars to Furan with Agitated Cell Reactor Technology Abdullahi Adamu, Kamelia Boodhoo, Fernando Russo Abegão School of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK  The dehydration of hemicellulose sugars to furans offers a sustainable route to renewable chemicals. Most often, this process has been confined to lab scale, using pure substrates in conventional batch reactors. Process scale up using industrial feedstocks presents significant challenges. The hemicellulose fractions complexity, high dilution, and presence of impurities leads to inconsistent yields and low selectivity. Additionally, the tendency towards by-product formation, such as humins, can lead to poor yields and reactor fouling. A potential solution to this is to use a biphasic extractive-reaction system, in which the furan products are separated from the aqueous medium in situ, preventing by-products formation. However, when moderate to long reaction times are required, conventional reactors have limited capacity for effective mixing, which is required for the extractive-reaction process.  The agitated cell reactor (ACR) offers a novel design with interconnected cells with individual agitators and has the potential to scale up the sugar dehydration process effectively by decoupling mixing from residence time, allowing conversion to take place in a kinetic regime favourable to main product formation and isolation. This configuration intensifies mixing, enhancing solids flow and minimising the formation of humins. The ability of an ACR to provide consistent contact between reactants, catalysts, and extraction solvent, alongside its suitability for continuous operation, addresses the scale-up challenges head-on. Studies transitioning from pure substrate to real biorefining feedstocks will be discussed, showcasing the capacity of ACR to handle the intricacies of industrial feedstock whilst improving furan yields, bridging the gap between laboratory and industrial application. 

Scaling Up Dehydration of Sugars to Furan with Agitated Cell Reactor Technology

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Scaling Up Dehydration of Sugars to Furan with Agitated Cell Reactor Technology

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