Furfural manufacture and valorization – A selection of recent developments

Despite early promises, Furfural failed to become a major chemical intermediate as it could not compete with cheap and abundant petrochemicals. But recent societal pressures to replace fossil resources with renewable ones, combined with recent technology developments may give it a second chance today. This paper presents recent developments in furfural manufacture and valorization that I have been personally involved in. Specifically, it will first discuss advanced furfural manufacture that integrate biomass fractionation with xylose dehydration. Attention will then be devoted to furfural upgrading to aviation fuels and to chemical intermediates such as BDO/THF and FDCA.