| Abstract
| - This paper deals with the dehydration of fructose (F) to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and the rehydrationof HMF to levulinic acid (LA) along with formic acid (FA) in subcritical water (sub-CW) in the presence ofHCl as catalyst. The experimental conditions were 483−543 K, 4−15 MPa, and residence times of 0.5−300s. The pressure (in the range of 4−15 MPa) did not affect the decomposition reactions. This differed fromother operating variables. The main products were found to be HMF, 2-furaldehyde (2FA), LA, FA, andsoluble polymers. The HMF, LA, and FA were also individually subjected for decomposition at the samecondition. We found that, during the sub-CW reaction, byproducts (soluble polymers) were produced notonly from F but also from HMF. However, we distinguished between two different polymers (i.e., producedfrom the decomposition of F or HMF) in a proposed reaction model. The kinetics of the sub-CW reactionwas developed by considering not only F, HMF, LA, and FA but also soluble polymers. The kinetic constantsobtained from the proposed reaction pathway showed good agreement with experimental results.
|
