Critical review of furfural and furfuryl alcohol production: Past, present, and future on heterogeneous catalysis

Abstract

The valorization of biomass has the potential to produce molecules from renewable sources. Among them, furfural (FUR) is one of the best platform molecules due to its reactivity. It is produced from the acid dehydration of xylose (XYL), in homogenous or heterogeneous media. FUR hydrogenation produces furfuryl alcohol (FA), an important building block molecule. Based on the most-cited and most-recent papers on those research fields, the present work proposes a critical review of FUR and FA synthesis on heterogeneous systems. FUR and FA production was revised by the nature of reaction media and main active phases. Furthermore, the direct upgrade of XYL to FA might bring new ideas to gather dehydration and hydrogenation routes. In addition, a summary of future perspectives was provided. Then, this paper offers general and specific approaches for a better understanding of XYL, FUR, and FA main reactions and challenges.