Highly efficient dehydration of carbohydrates to 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF), 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) and levulinic acid by biphasic continuous flow processing

• Malte Brasholz
• Karin von Känel
• Christian H. Hornung
• Simon Saubern
• John Tsanaktsidis

• CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering, Victoria , Australia

Using a continuous flow reactor, the dehydration of D-fructose and other carbohydrates to 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (1) is achieved in reaction times as short as 60 s. The biphasic flow process allows for high-yielding multigram scale production of CMF (1) which is obtained with excellent purity after a simple extractive work-up. Efficient conversion of D-fructose into 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (2) and levulinic acid (6) is also demonstrated using flow reactor techniques.

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