Traditional process for production of tetrahydrofuran (THF) is acid-catalyzed dehydration of butanediol sourced from fossil fuel natural gas liquids

Bio-based alternatives can be utilized to synthesize THF via a furfural route.  For example, dissolving pulp processing requires the hemicellulose portion of wood chip raw material be removed prior to pulping.  This pre-hydrolysate stream is typically discarded in waste-water system or burned in waste-boiler application.  The 5-carbon waste stream is targeted for upgrade to furfural or THF production

KSE technology utilizes hybrid reactive distillation with a side-car reactor to sequentially perform hydrolysis and dehydration of xylan-to-furfural, decarbonylation of furfural-to-furan, followed by downstream hydrogenation to high purity THF