Commercially attractive process for production of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural from high fructose corn syrup

5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) was prepared with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) manufactured directly from industry. Equipped industrial process and cheaper availability considered HFCS-90 as a competitive starter for production of HMF. Readily evaporable solvent, 1,4-dioxane was found as a promising reaction media from the screening of various solvents and readily available cation exchange resin, Amberlyst-15 was used as a solid acid catalyst. Parametric variation studies including amount of catalyst, concentration of HFCS-90, and reaction temperature were performed to achieve a maximum HMF yield of 80% at 100°C within 3h. In particular, use of readily evaporable solvent and heterogeneous catalyst allowed highly practical purification of HMF, which still remains as a major obstacle to the commercialization of HMF. With filtration, evaporation, and extraction, HMF was simply isolated in 72% yield and 1H NMR spectra of the isolated HMF confirmed that its purity was sufficient for use in next step of reactions. In addition, all solvents could be recycled with distillation and catalyst was reused up to 5 cycles without a significant loss of activity.