Production of 5-HMF from Cellulosic Biomass: Experimental Results and Integrated Process Simulation

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is one of the most promising biomass derived platform chemicals. It can be synthesized from biomass carbohydrates, mainly glucose and fructose, via dehydration under acidic conditions. The reaction may be performed either in water, ionic liquids or organic solvents, in particular polar aprotic solvents. In this work, the process modelling of a two-step synthesis of 5-HMF from biomass is presented. Starting from hemicellulose-free biomass, the first step includes the hydrolysis of cellulose towards glucose in the presence of H 2 SO 4 as catalyst, while in a second step glucose is dehydrated to 5-HMF with the aid of Sn20/γ-Αl 2 O 3 catalyst. Hydrolysis is performed in aqueous medium, while dehydration of glucose is taking place in a DMSO/H 2 O mixture. The overall production of 5-HMF is modelled via the chemical process optimization software ASPEN PLUS™. The optimized process is scaled up at an industrial scale where the heat integration, mass and energy balance calculations are performed.