Process integration for the conversion of glucose to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid

The development of biorefineries means that a key feedstock for many new processes will be sugars in various forms, such as glucose or fructose. From these feedstocks a range of chemicals can be synthesized using heterogeneous catalysis, immobilized enzymes, homogeneous catalysts, soluble enzymes, fermentations or combinations thereof. This presents a particularly interesting process integration challenge since the optimal conditions for each conversion step will be considerably different from each other. Furthermore, compared to oil-based refineries the feedstock represents a relatively high proportion of the final product value and therefore yield and selectivity in these steps are of crucial importance. in this paper using the conversion of glucose to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and associated products as an example, alternative routes will be compared with respect to achievable selectivity, and achievable yield. (C) 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier BY. All rights reserved.