C5 Sugar Decomposition Products under Hot Compressed Water Conditions

  • Ms Asanka Rahubadda, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney,, Australia
  • Dr Alejandro Montoya, The University of Sydney, Australia
  • Professor Brian Haynes, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney,, Australia

The production of furan derivatives from sugars has become an important area of research, because it assists in achieving sustainable chemical production using renewable resources. Five-carbon sugars (C5), which are difficult to ferment, can contribute immensely in the production of value-added chemicals such as furfural, furfuryl alcohol, and tetrahydrofuran. Furfural and its derivatives have several possible applications as pesticides, solvents for separation of chemicals, paints, varnishes, plastics and resin industries.
The objective of this study is to determine the xylose decomposition pathways under hot compressed water conditions (T=200-320°C, P=20 MPa). We observe that xylose decomposition follows a first order kinetics with an activation energy of 140 kJ/mol. The main decomposition products are furfural, formic acid, succinic acid, glyceraldehydes, glycoaldehyde and acetaldehyde.A maximum furfural yield of 0.3 mol-furfural/mol-xylose is achieved within 1.2 min at 280°C. The second largest product is formic acid with a maximum yield of 3.6 mol-formic acid/mol-xylose at 40s and 260°C.