Hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to diols: comparison of batch and flow reactors

Nowadays, the dwindling supplies of worldwide fossil resources and the growing of environmental pollution make the production of chemicals and fuels from renewable resources a key topic of the industrial chemistry. Under this perspective, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is considered as one of the top 12 bio-based compounds: it can be obtained from the dehydration of biomass-derived sugars and its reactive structure makes it a very important platform-chemical, being precursor of fuels, monomers and other valuable products. In this work, the selective hydrogenation of HMF to two diols, 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF) and 2,5-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydrofuran (BHMTHF) was investigated and optimized both in batch and flow reactors.