A comprehensive experimental study on the production of key platform chemicals from raw biomass

Abstract

In recent years, the utilization of biomass resources in the production of industrial chemicals and fuels become more preferable when considering low cost, renewability and environmental concerns. In this study, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and levulinic acid obtained from catalytic one-pot reaction of different feedstocks (microcrystalline cellulose, corn straw, sorghum and waste fluff) under the specified conditions (temperature, time, solvent ratio, catalyst loading) using different cosolvents (methanol, hexane, tetrahydrofuran (THF), acetone) in reaction medium. Over the Amberlyst-15 catalyst, significant increase in levulinic acid concentration was achieved using acetone as cosolvent thus 94.34 +/- 5.25 mg levulinic acid was obtained from 1 g sorghum at 180 degrees C for 30 min. The use of polar aprotic solvents such as THF and acetone promoted further hydrolysis of raw biomass materials in reaction medium.