5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). A Review Focussing on its Manufacture

Abstract

The acid‐catalysed dehydration of hexoses results in the formation of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Fructose and inulin are especially good starting materials. A review is given of the many methods to produce HMF. The reaction kinetics are dealt with in the sections: raw material, hydrolysis and reversion, catalysts, reaction temperature and time, the concentration and the risk of polymerization and the solvent and HMF stability. Manufacturing processes are illustrated for fructose as the starting material: aqueous systems with homogeneous acid catalysis or those using ion‐exchangers as catalyst, systems using dimethyl sulfoxide as the solvent and those using other organic solvents. A short treatment is given on processes starting with glucose, work up procedures and the formation of levulinic acid and other in situ‐formed HMF‐derivatives.

Liquid‐Phase Catalytic Processing of Biomass‐Derived Oxygenated Hydrocarbons to Fuels and Chemicals

“…However, HMF production is generally more selective from ketohexoses (fructose) as compared to aldohexoses (glucose). [6] Scheme 1 depicts generalized reaction pathways for the production of HMF from hexoses. Isomerization, dehydration, fragmentation, reversion, and condensation processes constitute the primary reactions during decomposition of sugars.…”

Bifunctional Solid Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of Fructose to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

“…It can serve as a precursor to numerous products and chemical intermediates relevant to the fuel, polymer, and pharmaceutical industries [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Selective hydrogenation gives a fuel additive with combustion properties similar to ethanol, and superior diesel miscibility [10].…”

“…HMF can be obtained by the acid-catalyzed dehydration of fructose, glucose, sucrose and even cellulose [7,8,[12][13][14]. Recently, a tandem process combining an isomerase enzyme and an acid dehydration catalyst was employed to produce HMF from glucose [15].…”

Synthesis of hierarchical AlPO-n molecular sieves templated by saccharides

“…The weight loss in the region of 416-667 K was due to the slow decomposition of TEA, which was different from that of AlPO-5. And the weight loss within 667-778 K was attributed to the decomposition of glucose and TEA adsorbed on the acid sites [37][38][39]. The difference between the second stages indicated the environment of TEA for the two samples was different.…”