New Approach to Dehydration of Xylose to 2-Furfuraldehyde Using a Mesoporous Niobium-Based Catalyst

Furfural chemistry is one of the most promising platforms directly derived from lignocellulose biomass. In this study, a niobium-based catalyst (mNb-bc) was synthesized by a new fast and simple method. This new method uses microemulsion to obtain a catalyst with a high specific surface area (340 m² g^-1), defined mesoporosity, and high acidity (65 μmol g^-1). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that mNb-bc has a rough surface. The mNb-bc was used to catalyze the conversion reaction of xylose into 2-furfuraldehyde in a monophasic system using water as a green solvent. This reaction was investigated using a 2³ experimental design by varying the temperature, time, and catalyst-to-xylose ratio (CXR). The responses evaluated were xylose conversion (X _c), reaction yield (Y), and selectivity to 2-furfuraldehyde (S). The optimized reaction conditions were used to evaluate the reaction kinetics. At milder reaction conditions of 140 °C, 2 h, and a CXR of 10%, mNb-bc led to an X _c value of 41.2%, an S value of 77.1%, and a Y value of 31.8%.