Conversion of hemicellulose sugars catalyzed by formic acid: kinetics of the dehydration of D-xylose, L-arabinose, and D-glucose.

The pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass produces a liquid stream of hemicellulose-based sugars, which can be further converted to high-value chemicals. Formosolv pulping and the Milox process use formic acid as the fractionating agent, which can be used as the catalyst for the valorisation of hemicellulose sugars to platform chemicals. The objective of this study was to investigate the reaction kinetics of major components in the hemicelluloses fraction of biomass, that is, D-xylose, L-arabinose and D-glucose. The kinetics experiments for each sugar were performed at temperatures between 130 and 170 °C in various formic acid concentrations (10-64 wt %). The implications of these kinetic models on the selectivity of each sugar to the desired products are discussed. The models were used to predict the reaction kinetics of solutions that resemble the liquid stream obtained from the fractionation process of biomass using formic acid.