Molecular Design of Solvents for 2nd Generation Biofuels Separation Processes

J.SCILIPOTTI, A.SILVEIRA, M.CISMONDI, E.A. BRIGNOLE

Praia da Rocha

Congreso; EQUIFASE 2009; 2009

In this work,  a molecular design of solvents program (Cismondi and Brignole [1]) is applied to deal with the separation of organic chemicals found in  wood hydrolyzates, that are toxic for the fermentation of  sacharified aqueous solutions to produce ethanol. The fundamentals of computer aided molecular design are discussed as well as the characterization and feasibility rules for the synthesis of feasible molecules. The detoxification process is analyzed from the point of view of solvent selection for liquid extraction and the primary solvent properties and other solvent constraints to be applied in the computer aided molecular design are presented. The results of solvent selection are discussed for two applications: removal of vanillin and of hydroquinone.