Chapter 11 - Furfural as a renewable chemical platform for furfuryl alcohol production

Abstract

With the rapid depletion of diminishing fossil fuel reserves, great concerns have been raised over environmental, political, and economic consequences. In recent years, much effort has been devoted to the exploration and development of renewable biomass as an alternative resource for producing biofuels and valuable chemicals. Among these bioproducts, furfural and furfuryl alcohol (FFA) as rich building blocks derived from biobased sugars offer a promising and renewable way to upgrade biomass. This chapter provides a critical review of the research progress toward catalytic hydrogenation of furfural to FFA using various hydrogen sources. Emphasis is placed on the understanding of reaction mechanisms to elucidate the role of metal and acid–base catalysts in the catalytic processes. A brief outlook is also given for the optimization and further exploration of catalytic systems and processes.