Biphasic Furfural Oxidation with Hydrogen Peroxide: Process-Level Solvent Screening and Solvent Effect on Catalytic Activity

Wander Y. Perez-Sena, Ville Tuppurainen, Ayrton Gautier, Kari Eränen, Juha Ahola, Juha Tanskanen, Tapio Salmi, Johan Wärnå, Dmitry Yu Murzin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Furfural, mainly obtained from the hemicellulose fraction of biomass, is regarded as a top biobased molecule offering a broad array of valuable products via diverse chemical and biological transformations. Among those, the catalytic oxidation of furfural is predominantly studied in the liquid phase using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidating agent. However, one of the main drawbacks of this process is the limited solubility of furfural in the aqueous phase. In order to surmount this issue, utilization of organic solvents is explored in this study, by utilizing the top solvent candidates, ranked in a previous study, where a conceptual process design for biphasic furfural oxidation using hydrogen peroxide was proposed, with thousands of solvents screened and ranked based on process-level energy consumption in a COSMO-RS based framework. The top solvent candidates were evaluated and compared in the oxidation of furfural using hydrogen peroxide and an acidic ion exchange catalyst in a lab-scale batch reactor. The effects of various parameters such as the polarity of solvents, organic-to-aqueous phase volume ratio, and initial concentrations of furfural were assessed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15809-15822
Number of pages14
JournalIndustrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume63
Issue number36
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Sept 2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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