Catalytic valorisation of renewable resource

The necessity of replacing fossil resources with renewable ones represents an argument of fundamental importance in our society. In fact this is an indispensable benchmark for the sustainable growth of both chemical and energy industry. Therefore, the catalytic conversion of renewable materials, such as the lignocellulosic ones, is a very important and strategic topic, which is broadly studied today. Moreover it allows enhancing waste materials and obtaining alternative and competitive molecules with those originated from fossil resources. In particular, the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is of great importance because it could be obtained from monosaccharides/polysaccharides and through its hydrogenation it is possible to obtain important monomers and biofuels. In this work the synthesis of HMF from fructose and inulin is studied in the respect of Green Chemistry principles. The hydrogenation of HMF aqueous solution to give two different important monomers, 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydrofuran (BHMTHF) and 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF), was carried out in autoclave and the influence of different experimental parameters was taken into account.