C.R. Vitasari

Water extraction of pyrolysis oil: The first step for the recovery of renewable chemicals

The interest in biomass as a source of renewable energy and chemicals has been increasing in keeping up with the transition to a sustainable bio-based economy. An important initial step of chemicals recovery from biomass-derived pyrolysis oil is water extraction where most of polar compounds are isolated in the aqueous phase. This study was done to investigate the effects of stirring rate and water-to-oil ratio on the extraction capability (distribution coefficient and yield), water content, and atomic composition of both aqueous and organic phases. The results show that the stirring rate above 300 rpm has no influence on the equilibrium. Increasing the water-to-oil ratio dilutes the aqueous phase without changing the atomic distribution. Forest residue-derived pyrolysis oil should be extracted at a water-to-oil ratio of 0.65-0.7, whereas pine-derived pyrolysis oil is preferably extracted at the lowest feasible water-to-oil ratio where complete phase separation occurs, which is 0.5 in this study.

Laboratory scale conceptual process development for the isolation of renewable glycolaldehyde from pyrolysis oil to produce fermentation feedstock

A laboratory-based separation sequence has been developed to produce an aqueous glycolaldehyde solution as fermentation feedstock. It consists of water extraction of pyrolysis oil, acid removal, water removal, octanol extraction, phenolic removal, back-extraction, and washing. The octanol-free aqueous glycolaldehyde solution contains approximately 4 wt% glycolaldehyde, which meets the requirement of fermentation feedstock.

Selector screening for enantioseparation of DL-α-methyl phenylglycine amide by liquid-liquid extraction.

Enantioseparation through liquid extraction technology is an emerging field, e.g., enantioseparations of amino acids (and derivatives thereof), amino alcohols, amines, and carboxylic acids have been reported. Often, when a new selector is developed, the versatility of substrate scope is investigated. From an industrial point of view, the problem is typically approached the other way around, and for a target racemate, a selector needs to be found in order to accomplish the desired enantioseparation. This study presents such a screening approach for the separation of the enantiomers of DL-α-methyl phenylglycine amide (DL-α-MPGA), a model amide racemate with high industrial relevance. Chiral selectors that were reported for other classes of racemates were investigated, i.e., several macrocyclic selectors and Pd-BINAP complexes. It appeared very challenging to obtain both high extraction yields and good enantioselectivity for most selectors, but Pd-BINAP-based selectors performed well, with enantioselectivities up to 7.4 with an extraction yield of the desired enantiomer of 95.8%. These high enantioselectivities were obtained using dichloromethane as solvent. Using less volatile chlorobenzene or 1-chloropentane, reasonable selectivities of up to 1.7 were measured, making these the best alternative solvents for dichloromethane.