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Furfural is an attractive bio‐based platform chemical that has many derivatives of commercial interest. Herein, we show that the selectivity of the direct furfural reduction can be steered from 2‐methylfuran and 2‐methyltetrahydrofuran to furfuryl alcohol and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol by varying the ratio of formic acid and sodium formate. These reagents take the role of terminal reductants in the disclosed heterogeneous Pd‐catalysed process. We report the development and optimisation of the reaction conditions for three different products directly from furfural: 2‐methyltetrahydrofuran, tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol and 2‐methylfuran which were obtained in 59 %, 46 %, and 63 % selectivity, respectively. Furthermore, the protocol uses commercially available Pd/Al2O3 as catalyst and the formic acid and sodium formate can be obtained from biogenous sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2,5‐Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is one of the most attractive emerging renewable monomers, which has gained interest especially in polyester applications, such as the production of polyethylene furanoate (PEF). Recently, the attention has shifted towards FDCA esters due to their better solubility as well as the easier purification and polymerisation compared to FDCA. In our previous work, we reported the synthesis of FDCA butyl esters by dehydration of aldaric acids as stable intermediates. Here, we present the synthesis of FDCA methyl esters in high yields from pectin‐based galactaric acid using a solid acid catalyst. The process enables high substrate concentrations (up to 20 wt %) giving up to 50 mol % FDCA methyl esters with total furancarboxylates yields of up to 90 mol %. The synthesis was successfully scaled up from gram‐scale to kilogram‐scale in batch reactors showing the feasibility of the process. The stability of the catalyst was tested in re‐use experiments. Purification of the crude product by vacuum distillation and precipitation gave furan‐2,5‐dimethylcarboxylate with a 98 % purity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, published in ChemSusChem, discusses the production of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) esters from pectin-based aldaric acid. The researchers demonstrate the transformation of pectin-rich side streams, such as sugar beet pulp and citrus processing waste, into bio-based monomers. They use galactaric acid, produced from pectin through oxidative fermentation, as a stable intermediate that is then dehydrated into FDCA esters using solid acid catalysts. The article presents the synthesis of FDCA methyl esters from laboratory to bench scale, highlighting the feasibility of this route. [Extracted from the article]