Simultaneous Direct Production of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and Furfural from Corncob Biomass Using Porous HSO3-ZSM-5 Zeolite Catalyst

A feasible catalytic process was developed for the simultaneous direct production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural from corncob biomass using porous HO3-ZSM-5 zeolite solid-acid catalyst in organic/water cosolvents. This research work demonstrated and optimized the catalytic performance of sulfonated ZSM-S zeolite and a highly tunable cosolvent system to significantly improve the coproduction of HMF and furfural from lignocellulosic biomass in a single-phase reaction process by integrating biomass hydrolysis with catalytic dehydration of sugars. The sulfonated ZSM-S zeolite exhibited high catalytic activity for the corncob biomass conversion to HMF and furfural, the important and useful platform chemicals in the industry. The reaction conditions including solvent, catalyst loading, temperature, and reaction time were investigated. Combining modified ZSM-5 catalyst with the THE/H2O cosolvent gave high simultaneous yields of HMF (49 +/- 0.5%) and furfural (89 +/- 0.5%) directly from the corncob biomass with low levulinic acid formation (11%) at suitable reaction conditions.

Automated summary

A feasible catalytic process was developed for the simultaneous direct production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural from corncob biomass. By optimizing the conditions, the yields of HMF and furfural were significantly improved while the formation of levulinic acid was reduced.