Issue 16, 2016

High yield conversion of cellulosic biomass into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and a study of the reaction kinetics of cellulose to HMF conversion in a biphasic system

Abstract

Catalytic technology for cellulosic biomass conversion has been proven to be a promising approach for valuable chemical feedstock production. However, its recalcitrant nature is a major limitation to unlocking the carbohydrate biopolymer content and their subsequent conversion into 5-hydroxymethylfural (HMF). This paper investigates the production of HMF using glucose, cellulose, sugarcane bagasse and rice husk as the feedstocks. Acid dehydration of the carbohydrate sources was conducted in a biphasic system of water–MeTHF modified with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) over a phosphated TiO2 catalyst. The catalyst displayed a very good catalytic performance for the conversion of glucose into HMF (91% yield). More so, it is suitable for the selective conversion of mechanocatalytic depolymerized cellulose to 74.7% yield of HMF. Cellulosic biomass could also be directly converted into HMF and furfural in reasonable yields. The efficiency of biomass-to-HMF production was further advanced after biomass fractionation treatment. Remarkable yields of 72% and 65% HMF were produced from sugarcane bagasse and rice husk, respectively. Finally, the reaction kinetics of solubilized cellulose to HMF conversion was investigated and a simplified kinetic model comprising two reaction steps was developed: (1) hydrolysis of cello-oligomers to glucose and (2) glucose dehydration to HMF.

Graphical abstract: High yield conversion of cellulosic biomass into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and a study of the reaction kinetics of cellulose to HMF conversion in a biphasic system

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Apr 2016
Accepted
17 May 2016
First published
24 May 2016

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016,6, 6257-6266

High yield conversion of cellulosic biomass into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and a study of the reaction kinetics of cellulose to HMF conversion in a biphasic system

L. Atanda, M. Konarova, Q. Ma, S. Mukundan, A. Shrotri and J. Beltramini, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2016, 6, 6257 DOI: 10.1039/C6CY00820H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements