Conceptual Process Design, Techno-Economics, and Greenhouse Gas Analysis of Furfuryl Alcohol Production via Transfer Hydrogenation

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) has gained attention as a potentially more sustainable process than conventional hydrogenation with H 2 gas.In this process, hydrogen is supplied in situ from a donor molecule without the need for high-pressure H 2 .We developed a conceptual commercial process for the transfer hydrogenation of furfural into furfuryl alcohol and performed techno-economic and greenhouse gas analyses aiming to identify bottlenecks and guide future research in this field.Two hydrogen donor compounds were considered: isopropanol and ethanol.Total capital investment varies between US$24.8-33.3 million for these processes, and the minimum selling price (MSP) for furfuryl alcohol is below the market price of US$1.52/kgonly with ethanol as hydrogen donor.The main impact on the profitability is from selling the dehydrogenated hydrogen donor as a co-product.Thus, low-cost hydrogen donors that generate high-value dehydrogenation products are required for this process to be competitive with conventional hydrogenation.In addition, utilizing a hydrogen donor that comes free of embodied impact and/or that avoids a GHG release is required for CTH to have lower greenhouse gas emissions intensity than conventional hydrogenation.