Adsorption of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, Levulinic Acid, Formic Acid, and Glucose Using Polymeric Resins Modified with Different Functional Groups.

Abstract

5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is a promising high value-added platform chemical, which can be produced from glucose, fructose, or lignocellulosic biomass via catalysis technology. However, the effective separation of 5-HMF from aqueous solution and actual biomass hydrolysate is still challenging because 5-HMF can be further rehydrated into levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA) under acidic conditions. Herein, the adsorption behavior of glucose and 5-HMF and its follow-up products (LA and FA) from aqueous solutions onto polymeric adsorbents modified with various functional groups (XAD-4, XAD7HP, and XAD761 resins) was systematically investigated. The results showed that XAD761 resin exhibited the highest adsorption selectivity (α5-HMF/glucose = 42.42 ± 5.84, α5-HMF/FA = 18.41 ± 0.50, and α5-HMF/LA = 3.01 ± 0.10) and capacity for 5-HMF (106 mg g–1 wet resin). The adsorption equilibrium was better fitted by the Freundlich isotherm model at the studied range of 5-HMF concentrations. The thermodynamic study and activation energy also revealed that the adsorption process of XAD761 resin for 5-HMF was spontaneous, exothermic, and physical. The kinetic regression results revealed that the kinetic data of 5-HMF was accurately followed by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In conclusion, the present study revealed that the potential of phenol formaldehyde resin with hydroxyl groups could be used as an adsorbent for aldehyde organic compounds.