STATISTICALLY DESIGNED EXPERIMENTS FOR THE OPTIMISATION OF FURFURAL PRODUCTION FROM CORN COBS
Authors: *Amenaghawon N.A, Ebewele O.E, Osakue I.Y, Uche A.C
DOI Info: N/A
ABSTRACT
The dilute hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of corn cobs for the production of furfural was investigated in this study using statistically designed experiments under the following conditions: acid concentration (2-6 %w/w), temperature (120-150 oC), time (5-30 minutes) and solids loading (5-15 g). A statistical model was developed and validated to predict the yield of furfural during hydrolysis. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimise the hydrolysis conditions. The model was statistically significant, did not show lack of fit and was able to predict the production of furfural. After applying RSM, the maximum furfural concentration predicted by the model was 16.1 g/l. The optimum temperature, acid concentration, hydrolysis time and solids loading were obtained as 150 oC, 5.94 %w/w, 11.23 minutes and 16.15 g respectively. Validation of the model indicated no significant difference between experimental observations and model prediction.
Affiliations: Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Keywords: Corn Cobs, Furfural, Box-Behnken Design, Response Surface Methodology, Optimisation
Published date: 2016/12/30
