Experiment and Modeling Study of Glucose Pyrolysis: Formation of 3-Hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone and 3-(2H)-Furanone

Biomass pyrolysis is a promising technology for the production of bio-oil and chemicals. Among these pyrolytic products, furans are important chemicals. In this study, PY-GC×GC-TOFMS was employed to achieve fast pyrolysis of β-d-glucose and online analysis of the pyrolysis vapors. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the distribution of main furans are investigated. 3-Hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone (HBL) and 3-(2H)-furanone (3FO) are observed to be the major C4 furans which are involved in the evolution of C4 intermediates in fast pyrolysis. Thus, density functional theory (DFT) calculations and pyrolysis of 13C-labeled glucose were combined to reveal possible formation pathways from different intermediates, carbon sources of HBL and 3FO. The results indicated that the production of HBL and that of 3FO are from similar pathways and show a competitive manner in the pyrolysis of glucose. Moreover, HBL and 3FO are confirmed to be mainly derived from C3–C6 of glucose, the possible pathways for the formation of th...