SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
Highly efficient conversion of microcrystalline cellulose to 5-hydroxymethyl furfural in a homogeneous reaction system
Abstract
The development of novel methods to obtain biofuels and chemicals from biomass has been an immediate issue in both academic and industrial communities. The present work introduces a new route to synthesize 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) in a one-vessel system through a tandem pathway involving decrystallization, depolymerization and conversion of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in a molten hydrate solution. A 71.62 wt% ZnCl2 aqueous solution was employed as the reaction media and methylisobutylketone (MIBK) as the extracting solvent in the reaction system. A yield of 80.6 mol% of 5-HMF was obtained at 150 °C with a HCl concentration of 0.2 mol L−1 in the solution for 40 min. The aqueous phase can be reused without significant loss of catalytic activity.
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