Catalytic conversion of carbohydrates to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from the waste liquid of acid hydrolysis NCC

•The waste water of acid hydrolysis NCC was fully reused without causing any environmental contamination and has certain economic value.•Sulfuric acid was separated to prepare to NCC again by SWDD membrane.•The waste glucose was catalyzed to 5-HMF in the monophasic system and biphasic system.•Inorganic salt was used to promoted the conversion of glucose to 5-HMF.

The principal goal of this work was to reuse the carbohydrates and recycle sulfuric acid in the waste liquid of acid hydrolysis nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). Therefore, in this work, the optimizations of further hydrolysis of waste liquid of acid hydrolysis NCC and catalytic conversion of L4 to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) were studied. Sulfuric acid was separated by spiral wound diffusion dialysis (SWDD). The results revealed that cellulose can be hydrolyze to glucose absolutely under the condition of temperature 35 °C, 3 h, and sulfuric acid's concentration 62 wt%. And 78.3% sulfuric acid was recovered by SWDD. The yield of 5-HMF was highest in aqueous solution under the optimal condition was as follows, temperature 160 °C, 3 h, and sulfuric acid's concentration 12 wt%.Then the effect of biphasic solvent systems catalytic conversion and inorganic salt as additives were still examined. The results showed that both of them contributed to prepare 5-HMF. The yield and selectivity of 5-HMF was up to 21.0% and 31.4%, respectively.