A stable, efficient, and reusable solid acid catalyst was developed for the conversion of hemicelluloses to value-added chemical (furfural). In this work, glucose was converted into a magnetic carbonaceous solid acid catalyst by incomplete hydrothermal carbonization of glucose followed by Fe3O4 grafting and –SO3H functionalization. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, surface area measurement techniques, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The prepared superparamagnetic carbon catalyst contained –SO3H, –COOH, and phenolic –OH groups and exhibited good catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of hemicelluloses in various biphasic systems. The effects of reaction temperature, residence time and organic solvent to water ratio on the performance of catalytic conversion were thoroughly investigated. Moreover, the recyclability of the superparamagnetic carbonaceous solid acid catalyst was also investigated and the results showed that it could be easily separated from the reaction products and reused for subsequent recycling experiments. These findings in the present work offer effective alternatives for environmentally friendly utilization of abundant biomass waste.

Production of furfural from hemicelluloses in biphasic system by highly efficient and recyclable magnetic solid acid from glucose

249th National Meeting (2015)

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