ABSTRACT
In this study, organic acid could be used as co-catalyst for assisting solid acid SO42-/SnO2-argil to convert hemicellulose-derived D-xylose into furfural. The relationship between pKa of organic acid and turnover frequency (TOF) of co-catalysis with organic acid plus SO42-/SnO2-argil was explored on the conversion of D-xylose to furfural. Oxalic acid (pKaâ¯=â¯1.25) (0.35â¯wt%) was found to be the optimum co-catalyst for assisting SO42-/SnO2-argil (3.6â¯wt%) to synthesize furfural from D-xylose (20â¯g/L) at 180⯰C for 20â¯min, and the furfural yield and TOF could be obtained at 57.07% and 6.26â¯h-1, respectively. Finally, the obtained furfural (107.6â¯mM) could be completely biotransformed to furfuralcohol by recombinant Escherichia coli CCZU-K14 whole-cells at 30⯰C and pH 6.5 in the presence of 1.5â¯mol glucose/mol furfural and 400â¯mM D-xylose. Clearly, this strategy shows high potential application for the effective synthesis of furfuralcohol from biomass-derived D-xylose.