Abstract

Bio-feedstocks are destined to replace fossil fuels for specialty chemicals, but current bio-refineries mainly ferment monosaccharides to ethanol, a commodity chemical that is blended with gasoline as a fuel. The market price of biofuels is several-fold lower than specialty chemicals and monomers. Rather than cracking the C6-sugars ethanol, here, develop dehydration and oxydehydration processes to valuable platform C6-chemicals like 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF), 2,5-dimethyl furan (DFF), and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid. This gas-phase process atomizes an aqueous solution of fructose into a fluidized bed reactor operating at 350°C. The solution forms an aerosol (droplet size of 30µm), which contacts the hot Pt-WO3/TiO2 catalyst and reacts to HMF rather than caramelizing. The maximum yield reached 21% and it increased slightly with temperature, and decreased with increasing catalyst inventory; it was less sensitive to O2 concentration, Pt loading on the catalyst, liquid feed flow rate, and fructose feed concentration. At the optimal condition, selectivity continued to increase with time even after 3h reaction. Selectivity to 2,5-diformyl furan reached 42% at 250°C with HMF as a feedstock.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.