Since the 19<sup>th</sup> century, fossil fuel exploitation and refinery have been established and well developed. Currently, many aspects of the modern industry, ranging from energy, bulk chemicals to refined materials are dependent on petroleum. Therefore, these non-renewable resources are being overly exhausted. Recent researches show great interest in using biomass resources as precursors for the production of polymeric materials, organic chemicals, and fuel. 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and its derivatives are among the promising biomass-derived platform chemicals, which have the potential to become “carbon-neutral” feedstock or building blocks in a green, renewable and sustainable industry. Comparing to HMF, 5-acetoxymethylfurfural (AMF) is considered to be more thermal stable and rather easier to isolate. Rather than doing the esterification of HMF, we aim to synthesize AMF by direct dehydration of 1,6-diacetylfructofuranose (DAF), a di-ester derivation of D-fructose. This entire procedure would provide the advantages of simple reaction pathway, mild reaction conditions, as well as the absence of hazardous catalysts and solvents. This approach might also help avoid the difficulties related to HMF purification since AMF can be separated from the reaction mixture by recrystallization or vacuum distillation. With an industrial aspect in mind, we are researching a multi-step conversion of D-fructose into AMF. The completed process consists of 2 reaction steps, which are trans-esterification of D-fructose and dehydration of DAF into AMF. The priority aim of this research is to utilized commercially available enzyme catalysts (e.g: lipase) and heterogeneous catalysts (e.g: Ambelyst 15) together with common industrial solvents (such as EA, THF, dioxane) in order to establish an efficient and sustainable manufacturing procedure of AMF from D-fructose.

Hybrid conversion of D-fructose to 5-acetoxymethylfurfural

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.