Platform-chemicals synthesis through selective hydrogenation of chemical intermediates from renewable resources

Nowadays, the global warming and the dwindling supplies of fossil resources have driven society to find renewable alternatives. In this context, biomass has attracted great interest, being a potential feedstock for the production of valuable compounds, fuels and chemicals. 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is one of the most important biomass-derived product. In this work, the sustainable direct conversion of fructose and inulin to HMF has been investigated carrying out the reaction under microwave irradiation and in aqueous medium and a wide range of catalysts has been tested in this reaction, both heterogeneous ones, such as phosphates and acid ionic resins, and homogeneous ones, such as inorganic salts. Moreover, recently great interest is paid to the production of HMF derivatives. In particular, in this work, the hydrogenation of pure HMF and biomass-derived HMF to two important monomers, 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF) and 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydrofuran (BHMTHF), has been performed in water employing commercial supported catalysts both in batch and flow processes. At the end of the reactions, the spent catalysts recovered from both configurations have been characterized by BET, TGA, ICP and TEM techniques, proving the stability of catalytic systems.