Sustainable production of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural from glucose for process integration with high fructose corn syrup infrastructure

Hochan Chang, Ishan Bajaj, Ali Hussain Motagamwala, Arun Somasundaram, George W. Huber, Christos T. Maravelias, James A. Dumesic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3277-3288
Number of pages12
JournalGreen Chemistry
Volume23
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 7 2021
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Pollution

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