Abstract
The present work examined the potential for two plants grown on Canadian soil, Symphytum officinale L. (common comfrey) and Panicum virgatum L. (switchgrass), to produce 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using metal chloride catalysis in two ionic liquids, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride or 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Furthermore, two pre-treatments, namely the dilute sulfuric acid treatment and the methanol extraction, were studied as a way to improve sugar availability and increase 5-hydroxymethylfurfural yields compared with untreated biomass. The 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 hydrolysis under autoclave conditions produced sugar-rich extracts containing 230 ± 23 mg of sugars per gram of hydrolysed biomass for comfrey and 425 ± 13 mg of sugars per gram of hydrolysed biomass for switchgrass. The methanol extraction produced extracts high in simple sugars with concentration of 300 ± 60 mg of sugars per gram of dry extract for comfrey and 202 ± 16 mg of sugars per gram of dry extract for switchgrass. The yield of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was improved from less than 1% using untreated biomass to 6.04% and 18.0% using dry methanol extracts of comfrey and switchgrass, respectively. These yields, although small, are important, as they show for the first time that a methanol extract could enhance the metal chloride catalysis in ionic liquids for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural production from biomass.
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