Marcelin Berthelot

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Herrn F. Riedels Einwand gegen die Zwischenreaktionen

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Towards sustainable production of formic acid

peer-reviewedFormic acid is a widely used commodity chemical. It can be applied as a safe, easily handled and transported source of hydrogen or CO for different reactions including those producing fuels. The review includes historical aspects of formic acid production. It shortly analyzes the production based on traditional sources such as toxic CO, methanol and methane. However, the main emphasis is done to the sustainable production of formic acid from biomass and biomass-derived products via hydrolysis, wet and catalytic oxidation processes. New strategies of low temperature synthesis from biomass may lead to utilization of formic acid for production of fuel additives such as methanol, upgraded bio-oil, γ-valerolactone and its derivatives, as well as synthesis gas used for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons. Some technological aspects are considered