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

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.