Catalytic dehydration of C 6 carbohydrates for the production of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as a versatile platform chemical

Interest in utilizing biorenewable feedstocks to produce fuels and chemicals has risen greatly in the past decade due to the economic, political and environmental concerns associated with diminishing petroleum reserves. A fundamental challenge lying ahead in the development of efficient processes to utilize biomass feedstock is that, unlike their petroleum counterparts, biomass contains an excess amount of oxygen. Therefore, catalytic strategies such as dehydration and hydrogenolysis amongst others have been extensively studied as platform technologies for deoxygenation. In this review, we primarily discuss the catalytic dehydration of C6 carbohydrates to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, which has attracted much…