Sucrose Is a Promising Feedstock for the Synthesis of the Platform Chemical Hydroxymethylfurfural

Abstract

Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) has an outstanding position among bio-based platform chemicals, because high-value polymer precursors and fuel additives can be derived from HMF. Unfortunately, the large-scale industrial production of HMF is not yet realized. An open research question is the choice of hexose feedstock material. In this study, we used the highly available disaccharide sucrose for HMF synthesis. The conversion of sucrose was catalyzed by sulfuric acid in water media. Experiments were conducted at temperatures of 180, 200, and 220 • C with reaction times of 2-24 min. A carbon balance showed that the yield of unwanted side products rose strongly with temperature. We also developed a kinetic model for the conversion of sucrose, involving nine first-order reactions, to uncover the kinetics of the main reaction pathways. Within this model, HMF is produced exclusively via the dehydration of fructose. Glucose isomerizes slowly to fructose. Side products arise simultaneously from glucose, fructose, and HMF. A pathway from hexoses to xylose via reverse aldol reaction was also included in the model. We believe that sucrose is the ideal feedstock for large-scale production of HMF because it is more abundant than fructose, and easier to process than sugars obtained from lignocellulosic biomass.

Influence of the pH Value on the Hydrothermal Degradation of Fructose

“…Usually, furfural is generated from pentoses like HMF is generated from hexoses. It is suggested, that small amounts of hexose can form the respective pentose at hydrothermal conditions, which subsequently reacts to furfural …”

“…It is suggested, that small amounts of hexose can form the respective pentose at hydrothermal conditions, which subsequently reacts to furfural. [20,40]…”

Hydrothermal Carbonization Brewer’s Spent Grains with the Focus on Improving the Degradation of the Feedstock

“…Energies 2018, 11, x 12 of 15 In addition, the production of levulinic acid (LA) (Figure 4d), which is one of the products of the rehydration of HMF in aqueous media, is observed [61]. Table 5 shows that the addition of acid into the initial slurry produces higher amounts of levulinic acid.…”

BioEnergy and BioChemicals Production from Biomass and Residual Resources

“…The twenty-one published papers cover a variety of biomass or waste residuals that have been converted into different types of energy, biofuels or biochemicals including heat [1,11,16], methane [2,4,[7][8][9]17,[19][20][21], electricity [2,11,16], short chain fatty acids [2,19], ethanol [3,12,19], syngas [5,19], nutrient pellets [6], hydroxymethylfurfura [15], and hydrogen [2,10,14,18,19]. The key information including biomass or residuals, products, and technology for the production and type of research are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…Steinbach et al [15] reported a novel process to synthesize hydroxymethylfurfural using highly available disaccharide sucrose as raw material. Hydroxymethylfurfural, as high-value polymer, has unique merits among the bio-based platform chemicals used as precursors and fuel additives.…”