Design and optimization of the levulinic acid recovery process from lignocellulosic biomass

Levulinic acid (LA), which is one of the top twelve value-added chemicals from biomass feedstock, has been recognized in a large number of applications. Nevertheless, its capability on an industrial scale has been limited by the high-cost of the raw materials and the lack of detailed process design. This paper reports the simulation, detailed design and optimization of an industrial process recovering LA from biomass, a renewable and inexpensive feedstock. The aqueous feed mixture from the acidic hydrolysis of biomass was fed to the separation process to recover LA as the main product; along with furfural and formic acid as valuable byproducts. Furfural was then used as an extracting solvent, resulting a significant decrease in total cost. Detailed analysis was conducted to assess the feasibility of the separation method. The purification process was intensified by applying an innovative top dividing wall column with a decanter configuration (TDWC-D). The response surface methodology (RSM), which allows the interactions between variables to be identified and quantified, was used to optimize the TDWC-D structure. The predictions by the RSM showed satisfactory agreement with the rigorous simulation results. The results showed that the innovative TDWC-D configuration could save up 16.4% and 20.6% of the overall energy requirements and total annual cost, respectively, compared to the conventional sequence. (C) 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.