Recent Progress in the Selective Hydrodeoxygenation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-Dimethylfuran With Metal-Containing Catalysts

Liquid fuel, such as 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), from biomass, is an efficient, potential alternative to fossil-based fuels due to its exceptional properties, including lower volatility, a remarkable octane number, heightened energy density, and immiscibility with water. DMF can be the starting substrate for producing bio-based p-xylene through the Diels-Alder reaction with ethylene to produce biobased polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This review, thus, discusses the catalytic role of various precious and non-precious metals on different supports, such as carbon, metal-oxide, zeolite, and hydrotalcite, for the production of DMF via catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) based on the previously reported literature. Various characteristic properties of the employed catalytic materials, such as particle size, metal-support and substrate interaction, surface area, porosity, and acidic and basic sites, are delineated, playing a crucial role in the HDO of HMF to DMF. The influence of various reaction parameters, such as hydrogen atmosphere, solvents- including hydrogen donor solvents- and temperature are also discussed. This review provides an overview of the hydrodeoxygenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-dimethyl furan (DMF) with various metal (Co, Ni, Cu, Ru, and Pd)-containing catalysts, discussing the influence of the role of metal-support interaction on the selective cleavage of aliphatic C-O rather than ring C-O of HMF, resulting in producing product (DMF) with excellent selectivity. image