Process for furfural production from biomass

#Methods for the production of furfural from biomass are provided. Specifically, methods for obtaining furfural selectively in good purity from lignocellulosic biomass under biphasic conditions are provided.

#Furfural is an industrially useful chemical. Conventionally, furfural can be produced from C5 sugars which have been obtained from hydrolysis of the hemicellulose contained in biomass. Typically, the hydrolysis of biomass is performed with aqueous acids at relatively high temperatures to obtain C5 and C6 sugars derived from xylan and glucan, respectively. Any furfural generated, when left in the monophasic aqueous reaction mixture of sugars, can undergo degradation via condensation initiated by reactive sugar intermediates. Besides resulting in lower yield of the desired furfural product, costly separation steps to isolate the furfural from other intermediates is needed. Such separation step(s) can increase process complexity as well.

#U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,744 relates to an improved process for producing a furan derivative having the formula shown below

#The methods described herein are described with reference to the following terms.

#As used herein, where the indefinite article “a” or “an” is used with respect to a statement or description of the presence of a step in a process of this invention, it is to be understood, unless the statement or description explicitly provides to the contrary, that the use of such indefinite article does not limit the presence of the step in the process to one in number.

#As used herein, when an amount, concentration, or other value or parameter is given as either a range, preferred range, or a list of upper preferable values and lower preferable values, this is to be understood as specifically disclosing all ranges formed from any pair of any upper range limit or preferred value and any lower range limit or preferred value, regardless of whether ranges are separately disclosed. Where a range of numerical values is recited herein, unless otherwise stated, the range is intended to include the endpoints thereof, and all integers and fractions within the range. It is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific values recited when defining a range.