Conversion of Furfural to 1,5-Pentanediol: Process Synthesis and Analysis

A new process for the production of 1,5-pentanediol (1,5-PDO) from biomass-derived furfural is studied. In this process, furfural is converted to 1,5-PDO in a high overall yield (80%) over inexpensive catalysts via multiple steps involving hydrogenation, dehydration, hydration, and hydrogenation subsequently. To effectively recycle H₂ as well as recover 1,5-PDO, detailed separation subsystems have been designed and integrated with reaction subsystems. Furthermore, a pioneer plant analysis is performed to estimate the risk on the cost growth and plant performance shortfalls. The integrated process leads to a minimum selling price of $1973 ton^-1 for 1,5-PDO, which suggests that it could be a promising approach for converting biomass into oxygenated commodity chemicals, which are difficult to produce from petroleum-derived feedstocks. The sensitivity analysis also identifies that the most important economic parameters for the process include the furfural feedstock price and plant size.