Knowledge Bank

Conversion of biomass to value-added chemicals offers a pathway to creating sustainable, renewable alternatives to historically petroleum-based products. However, many experiments have been conducted to improve the selectivity of biomass conversion, as it is the main challenge for economical and sustainable production. Specifically, experiments have been conducted to increase the selectivity and yield of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a valuable bio-derived chemical, from the dehydration process of fructose. Previous experiments have achieved a high selectivity and yield by reacting fructose in a mixture of water and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) using sulfuric acid as the catalyst, but this method has proven to be impractical. This research tested the hypothesis that the use of a bifunctional catalyst incorporating analogues of H2SO4 and DMSO in the dehydration reaction of fructose in water would increase the selectivity and yield of HMF. Utilizing the bifunctional catalyst with analogues of H2SO4 and DMSO in the dehydration reaction of fructose in water yielded approximately 74% selectivity for HMF, an upgrade from conventional dehydration reactions of fructose in water. Overall, this project has shown that it is possible to selectivity and efficiently convert fructose to HMF using an environmentally friendly catalyst functionalized with H2SO4 and DMSO “solvent-like” molecules.