A new methodology for the production of furfural as a renewable energy source from bagasse in acidic aqueous media

Sugarcane is one of the most promising agricultural sources of biomass energy. Sugarcane produces mainly two types of biomass, cane trash and bagasse. Furfural is synthesized from bagasse hydrolysis in an acidic environment and as a result of pentose dehydration. This study has been focused on the production of furfural by using sulfuric acid plus an inorganic salt (NaCl + H₂SO₄) as catalyst in a pilot plant. The obtained experimental data show that sulfuric acid plus NaCl can be more effective in the production of furfural. Furthermore, in order to predict the outlet furfural percentage from reactors, a three-layer Feed-Forward Neural Network using temperature and pressure of reactor, time of reaction, sulfuric acid percentage, and bagasse humidity has been considered. In fact, using H₂SO₄ + NaCl as the catalyst, significant improvement is observed in the furfural production process and energy consumption.