Furfural production from miscanthus and utilization of miscanthus residues

Miscanthus로부터 furfural 생산과 잔여물의 활용에 관한 연구

Furfural is a versatile derivative. It can be utilized for a building-block of furfuryl alcohol production and a component of fuels or liquid alkanes. But in bio-process, furfural is a critical compound because it inhibits cell growth and metabolism. Furfural could be converted from xylose and usually produced from biomass in which hemicellulose is abundant. In this study, furfural production from miscanthus was performed and utilization of miscanthus residue was consequently conducted. At first, hydrolysis for investigation of miscanthus composition and furfural production was performed using sulfuric acid. Previously, we optimized dilute acid pretreatment condition for miscanthus pretreatment and the condition was found to be about 15 min of reaction time, 1.5% of acid concentration and about $140^{\circ}C$ of temperature and 60% (about 7 g/L) of xylose was solubilized from miscanthus. Using the xylose, furfural production was conducted as second step. Approximately $160{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ of temperature was accompanied with the hydrolysis for pyrolysis of biomass. When the investigated condition; $180^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 20 min of reaction time and 2% of acid concentration was operated for furfural production, furfural productivity was reached to be 77% of theoretical maximum. After reaction, residue of miscanthus was utilized as feedstock of ethanol fermentation. Residue was well washed using water and saccharified using hydrolysis enzymes. Hydrolysate (glucose) from saccharification was utilized for the carbon source of Saccharomyces cervisiae K35.