Techno-economic analysis of furfural purification process from hydrothermal hydrolysis products of oil palm empty fruit bunches using distillation and extraction methods

Furfural is a high-selling compound produced from cellulose and hemicellulose conversion, and the level of demand in Indonesia is still high. This research examines the economic process design and calculation of furfural production made from TKS by varying the purification method with the distillation method and the toluene extraction method using SuperPro Designer 9.5 software. Furfural purification uses two methods, namely furfural purification using toluene extraction scheme and distillation scheme. Two plant location recommendations can be chosen based on the factory's location close to the buyer, namely in Cilacap, and the plant's location close to the supplier, namely Banten. Based on the economic calculation results, the toluene extraction purification scheme with an IRR value of 26.02% is more profitable even though its purity is 99.95% compared to the distillation purification scheme with an IRR of 25.86% even though its purity reaches 99.96%. The two recommendations for the location of the calculation of the economic payback period owned by the two locations almost the same. Cilacap, which has an NPV value of 89,739,000 $, is more profitable than Banten, which has an NPV value of 87,430,000 $.