Microwave-Assisted Production of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from Fructose Using Sulfamic Acid as a Green Catalyst

The development of safe-by-design synthesis of valuable chemicals from biomass derivatives is a key step towards sustainable chemical transformations in both academia and industry. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is a biomass derivative chemical of high commercial interest due to its wide range of chemical and biofuel applications. In this scenario, the present work contributes to a methodology for producing 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) through fructose dehydration reaction under microwave irradiation. The proposed protocol uses a simple sodium chloride-saturated aqueous-i-PrOH biphasic system and catalysis of sulfamic acid, a low-cost solid Bronsted-Lowry inorganic acid, which presents pivotal features of a sustainable catalyst. A 23 full factorial design was applied to achieve the highest conversion and 5-HMF yield, allowing the identification of the main factors involved in the process. Under the optimized conditions, fructose at the concentration of 120 g L-1 was converted with 91.15 +/- 6.98% after 20 min at 180 degrees C, using 10 mol% of catalyst. 5-HMF was produced in 80.34 +/- 8.41% yield and 73.20 +/- 8.23% selectivity. Thus, the present contribution discloses a new optimized methodology for converting the biomass derivative fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF).