Efficient conversion of corn stover to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and furfural using a novel acidic resin catalyst in water-1, 4-dioxane system

Abstract

A route of corn stover conversion was developed for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and furfural production by a novel Cl-containing resin-based solid acid catalyst (Cl0.3-S-R), which was synthetized by a simple hydrothermal method through polymerization reaction of o-chlorophenol and p-hydroxybenzenesulfonic with formaldehyde. The effects of catalyst types, reaction time, substrate types, solvent types, additional water concentrations and corn stover concentrations were investigated in detail. The high 5-HMF yield of 43.8% and furfural yield of 38.1% (based on the xylose and glucose units) could be achieved from corn stover simultaneously in water/1,4-dioxane at 190 °C in 80 min, with Cl0.3-S-R as catalyst. Furthermore, the catalysts were characterized by SEM, elemental analysis, FTIR, XPS and N2 adsorption-desorption to reveal its physical and chemical properties.