Development of a modular photoreactor for the upscaling of continuous flow photochemistry

Abstract

The upscaling of biphasic photochemical reactions is challenging because of the inherent constraints of liquid–gas mixing and light penetration. Using semi-permeable coaxial flow chemistry within a modular photoreactor, the photooxidation of the platform chemical furfural was scaled up to produce routinely 29 gram per day of biobased building block hydroxybutenolide, a precursor to acrylate alternatives.