The importance of
reducing the strong dependence of the chemical
industry on fossil feedstock is no longer a debate. Above-the-ground
carbon is abundant, but scalable technologies to supply alternatives
to fossil-fuel-derived chemicals and/or materials at the world scale
are still not available. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most available
carbon source, and a first requirement for its valorization is the
complete saccharification of its sugar-bearing components. HCl-based
technologies can achieve this at 20 °C and ambient pressure.
These principles were disclosed in the 1920s, but the inability to
economically separate sugars from acids impeded its commercialization.
Avantium Chemicals B.V. developed a modern version of this “Bergius”
highly concentrated acid hydrolysis, in which the saccharides in HCl
are transformed into furanics without any prior purification, in particular,
to 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF). Saccharide conversion to CMF was
developed by Mascal in the early 2000s. CMF is extracted in situ using
immiscible organic solvents, allowing for an easy product separation.
This study not only targets to investigate the viability and optimization
of this integrated process but also aims to predict the outcome of
the CMF formation reaction by applying design of experiment techniques
from the hydrolyzed saccharides varying a broad range of reaction
parameters.