Abstract
Furfural has been considered as one of the most promising platform molecules directly derived from biomass. The hydrogenation of furfural is one of the most versatile reactions to upgrade furanic components to biofuels. For instance, it can lead to plenty of downstream products, such as (tetrahydro)furfuryl alcohol, 2-methyl(tetrahydro)furan, lactones, levulinates, cyclopentanone(l), or diols, etc. The aim of this review is to discuss recent advances in the catalytic hydrogenation of furfural towards (tetrahydro)furfuryl alcohol and 2-methyl(tetrahydro)furan in terms of different non-noble metal and noble metal catalytic systems. Reaction mechanisms that are related to the different catalytic materials and reaction conditions are properly discussed. Selective hydrogenation of furfural could be modified not only by varying the types of catalyst (nature of metal, support, and preparation method) and reaction conditions, but also by altering the reaction regime, namely from batch to continuous flow. In any case, furfural catalytic hydrogenation is an open research line, which represents an attractive option for biomass valorization towards valuable chemicals and fuels.
Highlights
The exploration and development of new, non-fossil carbon energy sources are urgently needed due to the increasing energy consumption and the decreasing reserves of fossil resources and global ecological degradation [1]
It can be concluded that the most important and extended application of furfural is focused on its hydrogenation, since ca. 62% of furfural was industrially used for furfuryl alcohol (FA)
Ru supported on activated carbon, multi-wall carbon nanotubes or carbon black have been proved to be highly efficient candidates for furfural hydrogenation [84,100], but the introduction of bimetallic catalyst or other supports, such as reduced graphite or metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-UIO-66 and Al-MIL-53, showed outstanding improvement, and FA yields higher than 90% could be reached at 20 ◦ C
Summary
The exploration and development of new, non-fossil carbon energy sources are urgently needed due to the increasing energy consumption and the decreasing reserves of fossil resources and global ecological degradation [1]. To the best of our knowledge, very works beenhave focused furfural on selective hydrogenation [56,57,58]. (tetrahydro)furfuryl alcohol andreview, 2-methyl(tetrahydro)furan the latest five years willof befurfural discussed. This contribution will be mainly focused on catalytic processes while using different kinds of materials,. Has attracted the will not be and the focus of our main attention, it should be highlighted that furfural interest of the scientific community in recent years, being both, emerging environmentally friendly valorization via bio-catalytic and electro-catalytic hydrogenation [21,106,107,108,109,110,111,112] has attracted the approaches forscientific the selective reduction multifunctional chemicals. Interest of the community inofrecent years, being both, emerging environmentally friendly approaches for the selective reduction of multifunctional chemicals
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