Catalytic conversion of defatted rice bran into value added chemicals using copper ferrite: A sustainable approach

The most crucial and demanding universal issue lies in the enrichment of sustainable drive technology. As traditional resource, petrochemical becomes increasingly scarce in the future; mankind must turn to renewable alternatives to yield liquefied fuels and valuable commodities through sustainable process. It has been reported that furan compounds serve as an excellent platform molecule derived from defatted rice bran. The current work aims at the synthesis of copper ferrite nano catalyst by microwave assisted solution incineration approach. The catalytic properties stood verified by X-ray diffraction, SEM, EDAX and BET techniques. The catalytic performance of the copper ferrite catalyst were reinforced through in-situ microwave assisted acetalization reaction of furfural with discrete solvents like methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol at optimum reaction conditions for the preparation of wide range of commodity chemicals such as carboxylic acids, alkyl esters, di alkyl acetals, di ketones which are of commercial importance. The comparative study of relative yield of the products with different solvents is reported. The formation of the value-added products were confirmed by GC-MS, FT-IR technique. The catalysts from the reaction mixture are recovered by magnetic field.