Strategic Designing on Selection of Solvent Systems for Conversion of Biomass Sugars to Furan Derivatives and Their Separation

Production of furan compounds from biomass sugars has become an important field of research. However, designing suitable protocols for their production and separation is still a challenge in real practice. With an endeavor to realize this, different solvents have been screened by studying their mixtures through physicochemical properties such as solubility, stability, phase separation, phase extraction, and saturation and precipitation points. Using DMSO as a model solvent, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, 2,5-diformylfuran, and sugar were successfully separated by a precipitation method with the addition of water or organic solvent. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural was extracted using organic solvents through a phase extraction method with either addition of glucose or water for phase separation, and the reasons for high extraction efficiency of the MIBK solvent are discussed. Finally, integration of these individual steps is invoked to design efficient solvent systems for the production and separation of furan derivatives. By using these data sets, efficient solvent systems can be designed based on the requirements.