Process for chemical conversion of cellulose isolated from aromatic spent biomass to hydroxy methyl furfural

A green process for the production of 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) comprising following steps:

• (a) dissolving cellulose in a choline chloride-citric acid-citric acid monohydrate system to obtain a solution;
• (b) adding a solid acidic catalyst to the solution as obtained in step (a) and reaction carried out for a period ranging between 5 to 25 minutes followed by adding a hybrid catalyst and then the reaction carried out for a period ranging between 90 to 120 minutes to allow the formation of reaction mixture;
• (c) extracting the reaction mixture as obtained in step (b) with liquid solvent selected from the group consisting of ethyl acetate and methyl isobutyl ketone to obtain a liquid solvent extract and a residual reaction mixture;
• (d) reacting the residual reaction mixture as obtained in step (c) with the solid acidic catalyst followed by treating with the hybrid catalyst and extracting as given in step (b) and (c) to obtain a liquid solvent extract and a residual reaction mixture;
• (e) combining the liquid solvent extracts obtained in step (c) and step (d) and concentrating to obtain 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural, followed by purification of 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural by column chromatography;