Sustainable Production of Furfural in Biphasic Reactors Using Terpenoids and Hydrophobic Eutectic Solvents

Furfural comes from lignocellulosic biomass that, together with its derived products, has many useful applications in several industries. is usually obtained via pentose dehydration using a biphasic reactor to extract furfural situ reaction medium. However, the conventional solvents used so far, mainly toluene and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), are harmful health environment. Therefore, hydrophobic natural have been successfully tested this work improve performance of process sustainable point view. First, 30 were screened conductor-like screening model for real (COSMO-RS) method select high affinity furfural. From results screening, 14 2 selected experimentation, including thymol, eugenol, toluene, MIBK, eutectic formed by thymol. Then, liquid–liquid extraction was carried out both vials reactor, simulating usual temperature pH conditions obtaining Thymol eugenol showed yields 95 91%, significantly higher than those MIBK which 85 81%, respectively. Finally, xylose performed thymol solvent MIBK. Under operating conditions, namely, microwave heating 443.2 K, 10 min reaction, solvent-to-feed ratio 1.00, conversion 96.7%, selectivity 75.3%, production yield 72.8% as organic solvent, improved outcomes over cases, pointing an adequate approach effectiveness sustainability process.