Synthesis of Furfuryl Alcohol from Furfural: A Comparison between Batch and Continuous Flow Reactors
Maïté Audemar,
Yantao Wang,
Deyang Zhao,
Sébastien Royer,
François Jérôme,
Christophe Len,
Karine De Oliveira Vigier
Affiliations
Maïté Audemar
Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers (IC2MP), UMR CNRS 7285, Université de Poitiers, 1 rue Marcel Doré, CEDEX 9, 86073 Poitiers, France
Yantao Wang
Centre de recherche Royallieu, Sorbonne universités, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, CS 60 319, F-60203 Compiègne CEDEX, France
Deyang Zhao
Centre de recherche Royallieu, Sorbonne universités, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, CS 60 319, F-60203 Compiègne CEDEX, France
Sébastien Royer
UMR 8181 - UCCS - Unité de Catalyse et de Chimie du Solide, Univ. Lille, CNRS, ENSCL, Centrale Lille, Univ. Artois, F-59000 Lille, France
François Jérôme
Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers (IC2MP), UMR CNRS 7285, Université de Poitiers, 1 rue Marcel Doré, CEDEX 9, 86073 Poitiers, France
Christophe Len
Centre de recherche Royallieu, Sorbonne universités, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, CS 60 319, F-60203 Compiègne CEDEX, France
Karine De Oliveira Vigier
Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers (IC2MP), UMR CNRS 7285, Université de Poitiers, 1 rue Marcel Doré, CEDEX 9, 86073 Poitiers, France
Furfural is a platform molecule obtained from hemicellulose. Among the products that can be produced from furfural, furfuryl alcohol is one of the most extensively studied. It is synthesized at an industrial scale in the presence of CuCr catalyst, but this process suffers from an environmental negative impact. Here, we demonstrate that a non-noble metal catalyst (Co/SiO2) was active (100% conversion of furfural) and selective (100% selectivity to furfuryl alcohol) in the hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol at 150 °C under 20 bar of hydrogen. This catalyst was recyclable up to 3 cycles, and then the activity decreased. Thus, a comparison between batch and continuous flow reactors shows that changing the reactor type helps to increase the stability of the catalyst and the space-time yield. This study shows that using a continuous flow reactor can be a solution to the catalyst suffering from a lack of stability in the batch process.
