Green Production of Biopolymer Precursors from Biomass-Derived Monosaccharides

Abstract

Increasing demand of green chemical products calls upon the exploration of sustainable and renewable carbon resources beyond fossil-based materials. As such, biomass valorization has attracted increasing attention because biomass is the most widely available and sustainable carbon source. Among those biomass-derived platform chemicals, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) has long been regarded as an attractive candidate for the production of numerous value-added products, including biopolymer precursors such as 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and 2,5-bis(hydroxylmethyl)furan (BHMF). Nevertheless, the poor stability and difficult separation and purification of HMF makes it challenging to scale up the production of those valuable biopolymer precursors. Our group has initiated several projects focusing on the one-pot production of FDCA and BHMF from biomass-derived monosaccharides like fructose and glucose, bypassing the isolation of HMF as an intermediate product. We demonstrated that microwave-assisted transformation of these monosaccharides in biphasic solvent mixtures followed by electrocatalytic upgrading was able to produce both FDCA and BHMF with excellent yields and convenient separation, suggesting an economically attractive approach for large-scale production of biopolymer precursors from low-cost biomass-derived monosaccharides.