Low-Temperature Catalytic Pyrolysis of Cellulose to Directional Products 5-Methylfurfural by Magnetic Ionic Liquid

The application of biomass pyrolysis was still limited owing to the high pyrolysis temperature and the complicacy of pyrolysis products. In this work, a homogeneous low-temperature cellulose catalytic pyrolysis system is proposed to directional products 5-methylfurfural. The low-temperature catalytic activity and products distribution of cellulose pyrolysis in [bmim][FeCl 4 ] (Fe-IL) and [bmim] 2 CoCl 4 (Co-IL) at temperature gradients from 150 to 300 °C were studied. As the results, both Fe-IL and Co-IL can catalyze the pyrolysis of cellulose, especially for Fe-IL, which effectively reduced the pyrolysis temperature of cellulose to 200 °C. Nano-scale and micron-scale particles were produced by the catalysis of Fe-IL and Co-IL, respectively. Fe-IL have a high selectivity for the production 5-methylfurfural (5-MF) and furfural (FF), which were 71.12% and 19.14% respectively at the pyrolysis temperature of 200 °C. Furthermore, the mechanism of low-temperature catalytic pyrolysis and the directional evolution mechanism of 5-MF and FF were suggested. Graphical abstract