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Lignocellulosic biomass and carbohydrates as feed-stock for scalable production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

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Abstract

An one-pot process has been developed for the conversion of lignocellulosic bio-mass and carbohydrates to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), following a highly specific approach. First time, raw sugarcane bagasse and corn-cob biomasses were mechanically grinded to fine powder and further applied as feedstock for 5-HMF and furfural production in one-pot and scalable synthesis. A synergistic role of mixed organic and inorganic acids such as oxalic acid, AlCl3 and HCl, charcoal, and solvent system was critically investigated on cellulose with their proportion, which is responsible for the fruitful conversion to 5-HMF. Crucial role of charcoal was investigated under this study and noticeable improvement of yield ~ 16% was observed. The optimized process further tested up to 0.5 kg scale biomass conversion to 5-HMF production successfully. The scope of the process further extended for conversion of waste raw potato, corn powder, starch, glucose and fructose to 5-HMF production with high specificity and conversion. After solvent extraction, avoiding tedious column chromatography, the UPLC purity of 5-HMF was measured to 87–95%.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Director of CSIR-IHBT for providing the necessary facilities during the course of this work. The authors thank CSIR, New Delhi for financial support as part of the project no. MLP-0203. AK, ASC, Shaifali thank CSIR, DST-INSPIRE and UGC, New Delhi for awarding fellowships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Product Chemistry and Process Development Division, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), P.O. Box 06, Palampur, H.P., 176061, India

    Ajay Kumar, Arvind Singh Chauhan,  Shaifali & Pralay Das

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Ajay Kumar, Arvind Singh Chauhan,  Shaifali & Pralay Das

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  1. Ajay Kumar
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  2. Arvind Singh Chauhan
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  3. Shaifali
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  4. Pralay Das
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Correspondence to Pralay Das.

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Kumar, A., Chauhan, A.S., Shaifali et al. Lignocellulosic biomass and carbohydrates as feed-stock for scalable production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. Cellulose 28, 3967–3980 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-03764-3

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