Fructose dehydration to 5HMF in a green self-catalysed DES composed of N,N-diethylethanolammonium chloride and p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate (p-TSA)

Abstract

Due to the increasing concerns about the availability and accessibility of fossil fuel reserves, and the subsequent effect of using them on climate change, production of green energy has recently become a hot area of interest in the research field. As a renewable energy source, biomass conversion to biofuels has shown a great potential towards green fuel production; particularly fructose conversion to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5HMF) as a building block material and source of green fuels and other high value chemicals. Herein, we investigate fructose dehydration to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5HMF) as a green fuel precursor, using a green self-catalysed environmentally friendly Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES), composed of inexpensive N,N -diethylethanolammonium chloride as organic salt and p -toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate ( p -TSA) as a hydrogen bond donor (HBD) and novel medium for the fructose dehydration reaction. The advantage of using this DES is its ability to act as a solvent and catalyst simultaneously. It has shown to actively catalyse the dehydration reaction of fructose under moderate reaction conditions with a high 5HMF yield of 84.8% at a reaction temperature of 80 °C, reaction time of 1 h, DES mixing ratio of 1:0.5 salt to p -TSA (w/w), and initial fructose ratio of 5.