FurCab

The depletion of the fossil reserves and the global warming concern have boosted researches on the utilization of biomass as renewable raw material. Lignocellulosic biomass is mainly composed by 75% of carbohydrates along with lignin. Hence, many researches are devoted to the conversion of carbohydrates to value added molecules. Furanic compounds such as X-furfural (X = H, CH2OH, CH2OR ) can be produced via hydrolysis/dehydration reaction of carbohydrates (cellulose, hemicelluloses…). Among these furanic compounds, furfural is produced industrially (400 000 t/year) whereas 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is produced only in a pilot scale plant. HMF has not emerged yet at an industrial level due to a lack of selectivity or eco-efficiency in the production/transformation of HMF. In this project, an innovative tool box will be created to access, directly from carbohydrates, to valuable and cost-efficient chemicals with improved properties. These chemicals will be produced via furfuraldehyde series, which will be in situ converted to the targeted products to by-pass the energy-consuming and costly processes generally required to isolate furfuraldehyde derivatives. Targeted molecules are already selected (aminoalkyl tetrahydrofuran, alkyltetrahydrofuran ketone, amidoalkyl tetrahydrofuran) according to their potential of market via predictive methods. In this reaction, a particular attention will be given to the nature of solid catalysts as well as the choice of the solvent to successfully and selectively perform the reaction in a one pot sequence. The life cycle assessments of the process/chemicals as well as the eco-evaluation of the process will be investigated. The final aim is to produce targeted molecules in one-pot from carbohydrates. This proposal is a public collaborative project between IC2MP (Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers), ICBMS (Institut de Chimie et Biochimie Moléculaires et Supramoléculaires) and E2P2L (Eco-Efficient Products and Processes Laboratory).