Effect of zeolite catalyst on sugar dehydration for 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural synthesis

The effectiveness in the dehydration of sugars into 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural is related to the catalyst existence. A comprehensive synthesis of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from fructose, glucose and sucrose (3.73 mmol) with and without addition zeolite catalyst was performed in this study. The reactions were carried out in water-methanol solvent system for 3 hours reaction time at 180°C temperature. The catalytic results from HPLC showed that the reaction with zeolite increases the yield of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural with 51.72 %, 34.01% and 50.10% for fructose, glucose and sucrose respectively. The study suggests that zeolites promote the isomerization of glucose into fructose to occur and simultaneously catalyze the dehydration of fructose into 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural. Only slight changes on FT-IR spectra of use zeolite after the reaction was observed. Thus suggest that zeolite was a potential catalyst for catalytic reaction for the conversion of sugar into 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural.