Direct conversion of glucose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using a mixture of niobic acid and niobium phosphate as a solid acid catalyst

The aim of this work was to optimize the acid-catalyzed conversion of glucose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in an aqueous medium using niobic acid (NbO), niobium phosphate (NbP) and a mixture of both solid acid catalysts. A simplex-centroid mixture design was applied to optimize the mixture ratio between NbO and NbP. A central composite design was applied to process optimization. The studied variables were temperature (T), time (t) and substrate to catalyst weight ratio (R-S/C). The mixture design revealed excellent glucose conversion (55%) and HMF selectivity (56%) when the weight ratio between NbO and NbP was equal to 1:1. The experimental results demonstrate that a mixture of both solid acids provides a better combination of Bronsted and Lewis acidity for effective glucose dehydration into HMF than each individual catalyst.