Electrochemical Conversion of Biomass Derived Products into High-Value Chemicals

A Divergent Paired Electrochemical Process for the Conversion of Furfural Using a Divided‐Cell Flow Microreactor

“…The establishment of furfural as a commodity chemical spurs academic and industrial interest to develop new synthetic routes for its further derivatisation into useful chemicals, materials, and biofuels [3–5] . Amongst the different strategies used to convert furfural (e. g., pyrolysis, gasification, thermo‐catalytic processes), the use of electrochemical activation enables a green and sustainable alternative to these often high‐energy‐demanding processes [6–10] . Notably, electrochemistry allows to convert green electricity, derived from wind and solar energy, directly into useful chemicals, and kinetic barriers are overcome by applying a suitable potential over the electrodes.…”

“…[3][4][5] Amongst the different strategies used to convert furfural (e. g., pyrolysis, gasification, thermocatalytic processes), the use of electrochemical activation enables a green and sustainable alternative to these often highenergy-demanding processes. [6][7][8][9][10] Notably, electrochemistry allows to convert green electricity, derived from wind and solar energy, directly into useful chemicals, and kinetic barriers are overcome by applying a suitable potential over the electrodes. Hence, no additional reagents are required to enable reduction [11][12][13][14] and oxidation processes, [15] which can aid to further reduce fossil fuel consumption (e. g., hydrogen is often derived from natural gas via the water-gas shift reaction).…”

Metal–Organic Framework-Based Solid Acid Materials for Biomass Upgrade

“…Since the Industrial Revolution, consumption by humans of fossil fuels, e.g., coal and petroleum, has increased rapidly. However, due to their nonrenewable nature as well as the massive emission of greenhouse gasses (e.g., CO 2 , CH 4 , and NO x ) and other atmospheric pollutants (e.g., SO 2 , CO, and inhalable particles) after combustion, exploitation and utilization of novel sustainable and green alternatives are urgently demanded [1][2][3]. Biomass, including cellulose, starch, monosaccharides, and terpenoids, is reproducible in organisms via photosynthesis and thus recognized as a carbon-neutral alternative.…”

Highly efficient and tunable visible-light-catalytic synthesis of 2,5-diformylfuran using HBr and molecular oxygen

“…[8][9][10] In general, DFF is easily synthesized in high yield by direct selective oxidation of HMF under thermo-catalytic conditions, and the reported some homogeneous 11,12 or heterogeneous 13 catalysts are very efficient for this selective oxidation. In addition to the traditional thermo-catalytic process, some new technologies, such as bio-catalysis 14 and electro-catalysis, 15,16 have been applied for this selective oxidation. However, it is hard to recover the used homogeneous catalyst from the reaction system.…”