Conversion Of Carbohydrates And Biomass Into5-hydroxymethylfurfural/Furfural Using PEG-OSO₃H/PS-PEG-OSO₃H Catalysts

Biomass is all biologically-produced matter based in carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. It is one of the most abundant materials and represents the most parts of annually renewable resources in the world. The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to liquid fuels has attracted renewed attention in recent years due to its environmental, economic, and strategic advantages. They include waste materials (agricultural or urban), forest products (wood, logging residues, trees, shrubs), energy crops (starch crops such as corn, wheat, barley; sugar crops; grasses; woody crops; vegetable oils; hydrocarbon plants), or aquatic biomass (algae, water weed, water hyacinth).The thesis mainly introduced the development of the sugars and biomass conversion into furfurals through various catalysts.5-Hydroxym ethyl furfural (HMF) and furfural (FAL) were obtained under p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TSA), polyethylene glycol (PEG)-bound sulfonic acid and polystyrene-poly (ethylene glycol)(PS-PEG) resin-supported sulfonic acid. These methods have the advantages of simple operation, high yields and high regioselectivity, especially in environmentally friendly conditions, which supplies a new method to synthesis furfurals.This thesis includes three parts:1. In this section we mainly introduced the synthesis of HMF using p-TSA as catalyst. Carbohydrates and biomass were converted to5-hydroxymethylfurfural in H2O/DMSO biphasic solvent system. The advantages of this method are fast reaction rate, simple procedure, easy separation of products, and high yields.2.52-94%yields of5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from carbohydrates such as monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides were achieved using PEG-OSO3H or PS-PEG-OSO3H as reusable catalysts in a DMSO/H2O reaction system. Using polymer-supported catalysis, corn stover could also be effectively transformed into HMF.3. Polymer bound sulfonic acids catalysts possess interesting properties for converting pentoses and biomass to furfural in [BMIM]PF6. The furfural yield is improved when MnCl2is added to the reaction mixture. The catalysts were mild, non-volatile, non-corrosive and can be recycled multiple times (>10) without an intermediate regeneration step and no significant leaching of-OSO3H groups is observed. Finally, kinetic modeling studies for the conversion of xylose were performed.