Hydroxymethylfurfural ethers from sugars or HMF and mixed alcohols

Abstract

Accordingly, the current invention provides a method for the manufacture of a mixture of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural ethers by reacting a hexose-containing starting material or HMF with mixed alcohols in the presence of an acid catalyst.

Description

technical field The invention relates to a method for preparing 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural, or HMF) ether mixture from biomass. Background technique Fuels, fuel additives and various chemicals used in the petrochemical industry are derived from petroleum, natural gas and coal, all of which are non-renewable resources. Biomass, on the other hand, is considered a renewable resource. Biomass refers to biological material (including biodegradable waste) that can be used to make fuel or for industrial production such as fibers, chemicals or heat. It does not include organic matter that has been turned into substances such as coal or petroleum through geological processes. The production of biomass derivatives for non-food applications is a growing industry. One application example of intense interest is bio-based fuels. Biomass contains sugars (hexoses and pentoses) that can be converted into value-added products. Current work on biofuels from su...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The disadvantage of most of the methods studied is that HMF is not very stable under the reaction conditions required for its formation

Although the production of HMF by this method is attractive, due to the relatively complex plant design, and due to the suboptimal yield when hexoses such as glucose or sucrose, which are less expensive than fructose and less reactive, are used as feedstock, the multi-solvent method has a cost disadvantage

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