Abstract
Extraction of commercial essential oil from several aromatic species belonging to the genus Cymbopogon results in the accumulation of huge spent aromatic waste which does not have high value application; instead, the majority is burned or disposed of to vacate fields. Open burning of spent aromatic biomass causes deterioration of the surrounding air quality. Therefore, a new protocol has been developed for chemical processing of spent biomass to obtain 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF) with high selectivity (∼80%) and yields (∼26 wt% or ∼76 mol% with respect to pre-treated biomass) via refluxing in aqueous HCl in the presence of NaCl as a cheap catalyst. No black tar formation and gasification were observed in the processing of the spent aromatic biomass. Spent aromatic waste-derived CMF was further converted to 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) in good yields by a novel one pot method using iodosylbenzene (PhIO) as a reagent under mild reaction conditions.
Highlights
There are about 400 plant species being cultivated worldwide on a large commercial scale for the production of essential oils
This study has been carried out to explore a divergent approach for the production of HMF in high yield and purity from spent aromatic waste derived CMF as a renewable feed stock
The bio-based p-cymenesulfonic acid (p-CSA) containing a sulfonic (–SO3H) group has been cited as an efficient alternative to petrochemical derived toluene sulfonic acid (p-TSA) for the hydrolysis of cellulosic material in aqueous medium. p-cymene sulphonic acid (p-CSA) can be produced directly from Dlimonene as a renewable feed stock form citrus waste.[28]
Summary
There are about 400 plant species being cultivated worldwide on a large commercial scale for the production of essential oils. Extraction of essential oil from these aromatic crops results in the accumulation of huge spent aromatic waste as a by-product. Global industrial processing of lemongrass alone accounts for approximately 30 000 000 tons per annum of aromatic waste.[1] India, being a worldwide leader of citronella and mentha essential oil, generates approximately $6.0 million tons per annum of spent aromatic waste. This most abundant and underutilized biomass does not have high value application, the majority is burned or disposed of to vacate elds. Open burning of spent aromatic biomass causes deterioration of the surrounding air quality due to release a substantial amount of pollutants into the atmosphere such as trace gases
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