The sustainable production of succinic anhydride from renewable biomass

The selective production of C4 bulk chemicals from biomass is significant to replace the traditional method from petroleum resource. In this work, the succinic anhydride (SAN) is directly prepared from bio-based furanic platform compounds utilizing the visible light-induced oxygenation process, in which m-tetraphenyl porphyrin (H2TPP) and molecular oxygen was employed as the photocatalyst and terminal oxidant, respectively. Under optimal conditions, a 99.9% conversion with 97.8% selectivity of SAN was obtained from furoic acid (FAC) at room temperature. Moreover, the transformation of furfural and furfuryl alcohol with this system can also generate SAN, and the product selectivity is controllable by tuning light intensity and time. Furthermore, the EPR detection, isotope labeling, and control experiments exhibited that the generation of singlet oxygen plays a crucial role and 5-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone is the main intermediate during the reaction. Finally, a possible reaction mechanism for the production of SAN from furanic compound is proposed.

Automated summary

In this study, succinic anhydride (SAN) was directly synthesized from bio-based furanic platform compounds using a visible light-induced oxygenation process. The photocatalyst m-tetraphenyl porphyrin (H2TPP) and molecular oxygen were employed as the catalyst and oxidant, respectively. The conversion of furoic acid (FAC) to SAN achieved a 99.9% conversion with 97.8% selectivity under optimal conditions. The selectivity of the product can be controlled by tuning the light intensity and time.