Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

EFFICIENT CONVERSION OF SACCHARIDESIN TO 5-(BROMOMETHYL)FURFURALMikael Bols, Nitee KumariOP-2-5Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkE-mail: nitee@kemi.ku.dkFuran based organic liquids obtained from renewable biomass resources havebeen found as potential substitutes for the petroleum-based building blocks which arecurrently used in the production of plastics and fine chemicals [1]. Mascal andcoworkers [2] have recently reported that the 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF) can bedirectly synthesized from cellulose using concentrated HCl/LiCl and a continuousextraction procedure, however CMF itself is not suitable as fuel due to the chlorinecontent but it can readily be reacted with ethanol to a useful biofuel. In the presentwork we have synthesized 5-(bromomethyl)furfural (BMF) from fructose, glucose,cellulose and straw in moderate to good yields, using HBr/LiBr. Owing to propertiesassociated with bromo compounds, BMF can serve as a direct precursor of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), which is the only liquid biofuel with highest research octanenumber [3]. Further we utilized the BMF in the conversion to ethoxymethylfurfural(EMF) and methoxymethylfurfural in excellent yields under very mild conditions.FructoseGlucoseCelluloseStoverHBr(c), LiBr BrOOToluene/H 2 O5-(bromomethyl)furfuralBMFReferences:[1]. J. N. Chheda, G. W. Huber, J. A. Dumesic, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 7164[2]. M. Mascal, E. B. Nikitin Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 120, 8042.[3]. Y. R. Leshkov, C. J. Barrett, Z. Y. Liu, J. A. Dumesic, Nature. 2007, 447, 982.Acknowledgements:We thank the Danish research coucil for production and technology (FTP) for financialsupport.47