Reminder!
The last seminar of the semester: April 12th
All LORRE graduate students are expected to attend.
Catalysts for Producing HMF from Cellulosic Biomass
Barron Hewetson
Removing carbohydrates from renewable plant material is the most challenging process in the production of platform chemicals, such as 5hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), from the structurally intertwined polysaccharides
of lignocellulosic plant biomass. Lignocellulosic material is composed of three main components: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. Plant biomass fractionation is a vital step in the processing of any lignocellulose into value-added products and is often
a result of a pretreatment process. Lignocellulosic material must undergo a pretreatment process to enhance the reactivity of cellulose. The hydrolysis of cellulose is important in fractionation because it liberates glucose, which can be converted to a wide
range of fuels and chemicals of value. My research focuses on a cellulose solvent (85% w/w phosphoric acid) to remove and then recover cellulose from several plant biomass sources (corn stover, switchgrass, and poplar) and purified cellulose (Avicel). The
resultant biomass is subjected to a conversion process where maleic acid hydrolyzes the cellulose to glucose, AlCl3 isomerizes the resultant glucose to fructose, and both acid catalysts dehydrate the fructose to HMF in a single reactor. The HMF
is continuously extracted into 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) in a 2-phase reactor. The results confirm that yields of HMF can be substantially increased by cellulose dissolution followed by a second hydrolysis using bi-functional Lewis/Bronsted acid catalysts
to hydrolyze regenerated amorphous cellulose and dehydrate the resulting monosaccharides.
Schedule for The Spring Semester
|
Date |
Location |
Seminar |
|
January 18 |
Fu Room |
Titles and Abstracts |
|
February 1 |
Fu Room |
Isaac Emery |
|
February 15 |
Fu Room |
Xuan Li |
|
March 1 |
ADM Building |
Graduate Student Poster Symposium |
|
March 29 |
Fu Room |
Chia-Ling Wu |
|
April 12 |
Fu Room |
Mahdieh Aghazadeh |
|
April 26 |
Fu Room |
Barron Hewetson |