Abstract
The limited reserves and well-known disadvantages of using fossil energy sources have increased the need for appropriate renewable substitutes in the production of various chemicals and materials. Biomass has been shown to be worthy of attention since it can be converted to biofuels and value-added chemicals relatively easily. The design of biomass valorisation process requires knowledge on the thermodynamic behaviour of the biomass-derived compounds, such as furfural and furfuryl alcohol. The thermodynamic and transport properties of the binary system furfural + furfuryl alcohol were studied at various temperatures and pressures. Density, speed of sound and refractive index were measured in the temperature range T = (288.15–345.15) K and viscosity was measured at temperatures up to 373.15 K, all at atmospheric pressure. Further, the density of pure components was obtained in the temperature range (293.15–413.15) K for furfural and (293.15–373.15) K for furfuryl alcohol at pressures up to 60.0 MPa. The obtained density values were correlated using the modified Tammann–Tait equation with an average absolute deviation lower than 0.009% for furfural and furfuryl alcohol. The optimised parameters were used for the calculation of the isothermal compressibility, the isobaric thermal expansivity, the internal pressure and the isobaric and isochoric specific heat capacities. The reported data are a valuable source of information for the further application of the investigated compounds.
Highlights
Due to increasing environmental pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels and the depletion of their reserves, there is an increasing need for renewable energy sources that would meet the basic principles of “green” chemistry, as defined by Anastas and Warner [1]
The agreement of the results presented in this paper with the literature data is very good and falls mostly within sented in this paper with the literature data [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] is very good and falls mostly within confirmed the suitability of equation for viscosity correlation (Figure sented in this paper with the literature data [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] is very good and falls mostly within mixtures are lower than the values expected for ideal mixture (Grunberg–Nissan rule) indicating the heteromolecular interactions (Figure S1b)
Several thermodynamic and transport properties such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and refractive index of the binary mixture furfural + furfuryl alcohol were reported at various temperatures and 0.1 MPa
Summary
Due to increasing environmental pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels and the depletion of their reserves, there is an increasing need for renewable energy sources that would meet the basic principles of “green” chemistry, as defined by Anastas and Warner [1]. The transition from today’s economy based on fossil fuels to a sustainable biobased economy is a great challenge. Biomass has appeared as a promising, carbon-neutral substitute for fossil fuels in terms of energy production and the production of various chemicals and materials. Lignocellulosic biomass has gained significant attention due to its low cost, less waste and being the most abundant biopolymer in nature [2]. It mainly consists of three components, i.e., cellulose and hemicellulose that compose of polysaccharides, and lignin, an aromatic polymer [3]. Lignocellulose has shown a great potential in production of platform chemicals that can be further converted to added-value chemicals by a hydrodeoxygenation process (HDO).
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