Utilization of distillation residue of 2nd generation bioethanol for fine chemicals production

Distillation residue was waste containing huge amount of water. However, it could not through away to environment due to water pollution. Therefore, some treatments were required. Distillation residue of 2nd generation bioethanol based palm oil empty fruit bunch was hydrothermal liquefied to increase its added value. Process hydrothermal liquefaction was carried out under variation of temperature and reaction time, in an autoclave under inert atmosphere. The product consisted of tar dissolved in water, char and gas. The solid conversion, the tar yields and chemical compounds yields increased by the increasing the reaction temperature. The reaction time did not give significant effect to the conversion and the tar yields (wt %). However, reaction time gave a significant effect to typical chemical compounds in the tar. The typical chemical compounds identified in the tar were acetic acid, phenol, phenol,-2-methoxy and 2-pyrrolidinone. Acetic acid as a fine chemical derived from the distillation residue was recovered as 84% mol after reaction at 325 degrees C for 60 min. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.