Environmental and economic assessment and optimization of a novel technology for furfural production through life cycle tools
- Autores: Jorge Blanco Cejas
- Directores de la Tesis: Jovita Moreno Vozmediano (dir. tes.), María Linares Serrano (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos ( España ) en 2024
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Javier Dufour Andía (presid.), Rosalía Rodriguez Escudero (secret.), Nerea Viar Antuñano (voc.), Antonio Valente (voc.), David Martín Alonso (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Tecnologías Industriales: Química, Ambiental, Energética, Electrónica, Mecánica y de los Materiales por la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TESEO
- Resumen
This work focuses on the commercial-scale production of furfural, due to its outstanding interest as a platform molecule. For decades, furfural production has been relegated to countries with relatively lax environmental legislation due to its high energy consumption and the production of acidic waste. However, its demand remains high and is expected to increase in the coming years, so the impact does not disappear but is externalized. The development of technological alternatives for the production of furfural would imply the delocalization of production and therefore would decrease commercial dependencies.
This doctoral thesis has facilitated the in-detail analysis of the environmental profile of the conventional processes for furfural production through the construction of inventories that are not present in the existing literature. These have been utilised as benchmarks to assess the environmental performance of an alternative production process based on an Organosolv fractionation technology that leads to an integral use of all fractions of biomass. This study has allowed to identify critical points that should be overcome for a feasible implementation in Europe.
