Experimental and Kinetic Study on the Production of Furfural and HMF from Glucose

Furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) have been identified as promising bio-platform furans that have a wide range of potential applications as biofuels, bioplastics, and biochemicals. Furfural and HMF are typically synthesized from the substrates of C-5 sugars and C-6 sugars, respectively. Furfural can also be produced from C-6 sugars, which is technically more challenging owing to the higher energy requirement for carbon-carbon bond cleavage. In this study, the simultaneous production of furfural and HMF from glucose was conducted over different binary catalyst systems of Bronsted acids and Lewis acids using gamma-valerolactone (GVL) as the solvent. A promising performance was achieved by a SnSO4-H2SO4 coupling catalyst, with an optimized furfural yield of 42% and an HMF yield of 34% at 443 K in GVL. In addition, a kinetics study was performed in order to understand the mechanism of the simultaneous formation of furfural and HMF from glucose at different temperatures and GVL/water ratios. The results showed that the ratio of furfural to HMF production rate at different temperatures (433 to 463 K) or GVL/water ratios (90 to 80%) was constant close to 1, suggesting that the production of furfural and HMF might follow similar reaction pathways. Finally, the reaction pathway of glucose conversion to furfural and HMF was proposed based on the experimental and kinetics studies.

Automated summary

In this study, the simultaneous production of furfural and HMF from glucose using a SnSO4-H2SO4 coupling catalyst in GVL solvent achieved promising results with high yields. Kinetics study showed that the production rate ratio of furfural to HMF remained constant close to 1 at different temperatures and GVL/water ratios, indicating similar reaction pathways for furfural and HMF production. Based on experimental and kinetics studies, a proposed reaction pathway for glucose conversion to furfural and HMF was established.