Simulation of process control for production of 5-HMF from old coconut water

Abstract

5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) is one of the intermediate chemicals produced from biomass through the process of dehydration of glucose and fructose in acidic conditions. Biomass resources are one of the sources that attract the attention of many users of unlimited biomass resources, in addition to being able to produce environmentally friendly products such as bio fuels and bio chemicals. Old coconut water and oil palm tree trunk sap was chosen in this study because of its abundance in Malaysia. It is an essential organic compound for the production of bioplastics, chemicals, building materials, fuels, textiles, cosmetics and food. Although the production of 5-HMF is relatively simple, in fact, the synthesis of 5-HMF is complicated by the occurrence of multiple reactions at one time, especially when using biomass as a raw material. In this report, process control of production of 5-HMF from biomass is presented using fuzzy logic controller for controlling temperature of a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The objective of this paper is to develop a control system for a non-isothermal temperature control of a CSTR with the most stable response curve. Through simulation results, fuzzy logic control performs better because there was no overshoot and successfully reaches the set point at faster settling time.