Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) has gained attention as a potentially more sustainable process than conventional hydrogenation with H₂ gas. In this process, hydrogen is supplied in situ from a donor molecule without the need for high-pressure H₂. We developed a conceptual commercial process for the transfer hydrogenation of furfural into furfuryl alcohol (FFA) and performed techno-economic and greenhouse gas (GHG) analyses aiming to identify bottlenecks and guide future research in this field. Two hydrogen donor compounds were considered: 2-propanol and ethanol. Total capital investment varies between US$24.9 and 33.4 million for these processes, and the minimum selling price for FFA is below the market price of US$1.52/kg only with ethanol as a hydrogen donor. The main impact on the profitability is from selling the dehydrogenated hydrogen donor as a coproduct. 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 a lower GHG emission intensity than conventional hydrogenation.

中文翻译：

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转移加氢生产糠醇的概念工艺设计、技术经济和温室气体分析


催化转移氢化 (CTH) 作为一种比传统的氢气 ₂ 氢化可能更具可持续性的工艺而受到关注。在此过程中，氢气由供体分子原位供应，无需高压 H ₂ 。我们开发了一种将糠醛氢化转化为糠醇（FFA）的概念性商业流程，并进行了技术经济和温室气体（GHG）分析，旨在找出瓶颈并指导该领域的未来研究。考虑了两种氢供体化合物：2-丙醇和乙醇。这些工艺的总资本投资在 24.9 美元至 3340 万美元之间，仅以乙醇作为氢供体时，FFA 的最低售价低于 1.52 美元/公斤的市场价格。对盈利能力的主要影响来自于将脱氢氢供体作为副产品出售。因此，该过程需要产生高价值脱氢产物的低成本氢供体，才能与传统加氢竞争。此外，CTH 需要使用没有实际影响和/或避免温室气体释放的氢供体，才能比传统加氢具有更低的温室气体排放强度。