Selective Adsorption of a Substance Derived from Saccharides onto Synthetic Resin Particles

Most, if not all, of the chemicals and chemical products are made using crude oils as the feedstock. However, this feedstock is decreasing and the utilization of it is causing global climate change. An alternative feedstock must be developed to alleviate these problems. Saccharides (sugars) meet these requirements partly because many useful intermediates and products can be obtained in the presence of an acid. In the case when D-fructose reacts with concentrate hydrochloric acid, 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (HMF) is formed as the primary product. HMF is well known as one of many useful chemicals from biomass. However, it reacts further to form a HMF dimmer, and it also decomposes to smaller molecules such as levulinic acid. This kind of complex reaction is difficult to control through process variables including temperature, time, pressure, and solvent, in order to obtain selectively a specific product. In this study, a method of direct reaction control using adsorption in the same vessel. The results show that HMF dimmer can be selectively adsorbed onto synthetic resin particles. The results are almost the same as those obtained from a phenolics-carbonaceous adsorbent system.