Integrated Design of a Furfural Manufacturing Process from Bagasse

Abstract

Conservation of natural resources and pollution reduction are key elements in achieving sustainability. Furfural is one of the most promising sustainable platform chemicals for producing a variety of value-added products. Several studies have been published to optimize the performance of furfural plant design; however, this research introduces an innovative improvement in process integration. Both heat and mass integration strategies were investigated to enhance process efficiency, in addition to conducting an economic evaluation of the proposed plant. Simulation results using Aspen Plus V11 demonstrate that applying mass integration conserves 45% of the total fresh resources while enhancing profitability by saving approximately 0.5 million USD annually. The synthesis of Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) resulted in total utility savings of 0.02 million USD annually. The proposed plant for producing furfural from sugarcane bagasse is commercially attractive, with a total capital investment estimated at 29.05 million USD and a net present value (NPV) of 19.29 million USD. Overall, profitability metrics including rate of return, payback period, equivalent annual annuity, and NPV sensitivity analysis indicate the economic viability of the plant.