Catalytic conversion of diformylxylose to furfural in biphasic solvent systems

Lizhen Huang; Zelun Bian; Dalin Li; Xin Cheng; Xiaolin Luo; Li Shuai; Jing Liu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1146250

Catalytic conversion of diformylxylose to furfural in biphasic solvent systems

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Feb 10:11:1146250. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1146250. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lizhen Huang¹, Zelun Bian¹, Dalin Li¹, Xin Cheng¹, Xiaolin Luo^{1

2

3}, Li Shuai^{1

2}, Jing Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
² National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory of Plant Fiber Functional Materials, Fuzhou, China.
³ Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Biobased furfural is a sustainable alternative to petrochemical intermediates for bulk chemicals and fuel production. However, existing methods for the conversion of xylose or lignocelluloses in mono-/bi-phasic systems to furfural involve non-selective sugar isolation or lignin condensation, limiting the valorisation of lignocelluloses. Herein, we used diformylxylose (DFX), a xylose derivative that is formed during the lignocellulosic fractionation process with formaldehyde protection, as a substitute for xylose to produce furfural in biphasic systems. Under kinetically optimized conditions, over 76 mol% of DFX could be converted to furfural in water-methyl isobutyl ketone system at a high reaction temperature with a short reaction time. Finally, isolation of xylan in eucalyptus wood as DFX with formaldehyde protection followed by converting DFX in a biphasic system gave a final furfural yield of 52 mol% (on the basis of xylan in wood), which was more than two times of that without formaldehyde. Combined with the value-added utilization of formaldehyde-protected lignin, this study would enable the full and efficient utilization of lignocellulosic biomass components and further improve the economics of the formaldehyde protection fractionation process.

Keywords: biphasic system; diformylxylose; fractionation; furfural; kinetics; xylose.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870559, 31901262, and 32071716), Outstanding Youth Funding of National Forestry and Grassland Administration (20201326005), Outstanding Youth Funding of Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2021J06017) and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (xjq201923). We also acknowledge the financial support from the Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology (KL201911).