Novel pathways to 2,5-dimethylfuran via biomass-derived 5-(chloromethyl)furfural

Abstract

2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) is one of the most actively pursued biomass-derived chemicals due to the fact that it can serve both as a biofuel and an intermediate for drop-in terephthalate polymers. DMF can be accessed via catalytic hydrogenation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF), but the difficult accessibility of HMF from cellulosic biomass is a major impediment to the commercial development of such a process. Alternatively, 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF) is freely accessible in high yield directly from raw biomass and is shown here to be efficiently reduced to DMF under mild conditions via simple derivatives (aldimine, acetal).

Keywords: biofuels; biomass; furans; sustainable chemistry; xylenes.