D. R. Chaffey, T. Davies, S. Taylor
Mar 8, 2018
Citations
0
Influential Citations
29
Citations
Journal
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Abstract
Strategies for the efficient transformation of abundant and sustainable bioderived molecules, such as furfuryl alcohol (FAlc), into higher value products are currently a vibrant research area. Herein, we demonstrate that furfuryl ethers, which are of significant interest as biorenewable fuel additives, are efficiently produced employing an etherification reaction of furfuryl alcohol and short chain alkyl alcohols in the presence of a recyclable ZSM-5 catalyst and an orthoester, such as trimethyl orthoformate (TMOF) or triethyl orthoformate (TEOF), used as a sacrificial reagent. These etherification reactions proceed at temperatures significantly lower than those of the previous etherification procedures, and they provide the furfuryl ether products in high yield. Importantly, the low temperature employed improves the selectivity by minimizing the formation of hydrolysis products and the competing polymerization reactions leading to humin byproducts. By carrying out the reaction in higher alcohol solvents,...