Sustainable production of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural from glucose for process integration with high fructose corn syrup infrastructure. Issue 9 (24th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chang, Hochan; Bajaj, Ishan; Motagamwala, Ali Hussain; Somasundaram, Arun; Huber, George W.; Maravelias, Christos T.; Dumesic, James A.
• Is Part Of: Green chemistry. Volume 23:Issue 9(2021)
• Page Start: 3277
• Page End: 3288
• Publication Date: 2021-03-24
• Subjects: Environmental chemistry -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; 660
• DOI: 10.1039/d1gc00311a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9262

Abstract

Abstract : Development of an economic and sustainable process for production of a biomass-derived platform chemicals, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF), utilizing the infrastructure for production of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Abstract : 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) is a platform chemical, which can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass, and used for production of liquid fuels and polymers. We demonstrate a process for production of HMF using sequential enzymatic and catalytic reactions of glucose to synthesize HMF, and simulated-moving-bed (SMB) separation to purify HMF. The adsorption thermodynamic parameters of glucose, fructose, and HMF on a commercial chromatography resin are experimentally determined for modeling the SMB-based HMF production process. The experimental data are used to develop a rigorous process model and then estimate the cost of production. Chromatographic separation of HMF has 16% lower operating costs compared to an extraction-based process and has a minimum selling price of approximately $1478 per ton. We demonstrate that the HMF process can be integrated with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) process, and we performed analyses considering two systems including construction of a new integrated facility and retrofitting an existing HFCS facility to produce HMF. Our analyses suggest that the latter approach is a promising short-term low-risk strategy to advance the HMF production technology to commercial scale.