Process design and economics of an aluminium chloride catalysed organosolv process

In this work, an organosolv process using beech wood as the feedstock, a mixture of water and methanol (50 vol%) as the solvent and aluminium chloride as the catalyst is designed. Different to other organosolv processes, the formation of the high value-added product furfural occurs already in the cooking stage with a quite high yield (40 mol% based on a lab scale literature process). Different to furfural producing processes, the cellulose remains in the solid phase in high quantity (93 wt% of the initial based on a lab scale literature process). The plant is designed in the way that 99.7 wt% of methanol is recovered. Another specification is the isolation of 95 wt% furfural with a purity of more than 99.5 wt%. After consecutive conversion of cellulose, the minimum sugar selling price of glucose as a dilute solution is calculated as 329 $/t depending strongly on the furfural yield as well as the application of lignin and the corresponding selling price.