Comprehensive investigation of the biomass derived furfuryl alcohol oligomer formation over tungsten oxide catalysts

• Furfuryl alcohol (FA) monomer was converted into oligomers over WO3 catalysts.
• Difurfuryl ether and 5-furfuryl-furfuryl alcohol were dominant FA dimers.
• Both conjugated diene and diketone structures were observed in the WO3 catalyzed reactions.

The feasibility of using tungsten oxide catalysts for furfuryl alcohol (FA) oligomerization reaction was investigated in the liquid phase at 100 °C and ambient pressure. Five dimers (2,2′-difurylmethane, 2-(2-furylmethyl)-5-methylfuran, difurfuryl ether, 4-furfuryl-2-pentenoic acid γ-lactone, 5-fufuryl-furfuryl alcohol) and two trimers (2,5-difurfurylfuran and 2,2′-(furylmethylene)bis(5-methylfuran)) were observed in GC and GC/MS, while Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopy provided the co-existence of conjugated diene and diketone molecular structures, respectively. It was observed that C9–C15 oligomers' selectivity decreased as the reaction time increased. Ether bridge and terminal alcohol are dominant FA dimers which are very similar to sulfuric acid (homogeneous catalysis) catalyzed dehydration/condensation reaction of FA.

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