Fructose based rigid diol with a spirocyclic structure and low GHG emission profile toward high performance biopolymers.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), an important biobased platform chemical, can be potentially oxidized to several products that can serve as versatile building blocks for polymers. 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furan carboxylic acid (HMFCA) is formed by incomplete oxidation of HMF but the reaction often suffers from substrate inhibition and overoxidation to other products. In this study, resting cells of Gluconobacteroxydans DSM 50049 were shown to oxidize HMF quantitatively to HMFCA with exquisite selectivity. Complete conversion of 31.5 g L–1 crude HMF to HMFCA was achieved within 6 h under pH-controlled conditions. Initial productivity of 10 g L–1 h–1 was reduced to 2 g L–1 h–1 toward the end of the reaction. Thereafter, additional HMF added to the reaction mixture (12 g L–1) was converted up to 94% within 17 h with 100% selectivity resulting in final HMFCA concentration of 44.6 g L–1 and yield of 6.2 g g–1 cell dry weight. Recovery of HMFCA from the reaction could be achieved by adsorption to anion exchange resins Amberlite IRA-400 (Cl– form) and Ambersep 900 (OH– form), the former showing higher binding (169 mg/g resin) and product recovery. Alternatively, liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl acetate provided a facile separation technique for the recovery of pure HMFCA.

Bio-based 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and its derivatives have attracted enormous attention due to their valuable market potential. Production of pure 5-HMF is challenging owing to the high reactivity of its functional...

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a product of catalytic dehydration of C6 sugars, is a versatile and key renewable platform chemical. The possibility to use a high substrate concentration with high yield in a single-solvent system is one of the solutions to reduce solvent usage, energy consumption, reaction volume, and operating cost. A heterogeneous catalyst and single-solvent system were employed to develop a facile and green process for the production of HMF from fructose at high concentration under moderate conditions in batch and continuous flow modes. In the batch process, with 0.1 and 0.2 w/w ion exchange resin DR-2030 as the catalyst, 98.8% fructose conversion with 82.2% HMF yield and 99.7% fructose conversion with 85% HMF yield, respectively, were obtained from 300 g/L (30% w/w) fructose in DMSO at 110 °C. The catalyst could be reused for at least five consecutive batches. Continuous dehydration of 300 g/L fructose was carried out at 110 °C in a simple flow reactor packed with the ion exchange resin. Fructose conversion of 98% and HMF yield of 82% were obtained. HMF was purified by liquid–liquid extraction, concentration, and silica chromatography.

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