Preparation of 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural from Cellulose via Fast Depolymerization and Consecutively Catalytic Conversion

The conversion of cellulose to 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) has been investigated by a one‐pot consecutive reaction. At first, cellulose was depolymerised into glucose via a fast degradation of cellulose in molten ZnCl 2 in the presence of hydrochloric acid, and the yield of glucose is 75% in 120 s at reaction temperature of 95 °C. Then, DMSO was used as solvent and different kinds of metal chloride were added as catalysts, and the conversion was carried out continuously at 110–130 °C for 0.5–4 h. The yield of HMF was 53% when CrCl 3 were used as catalyst. The one‐pot two steps conversion was carried out at atmosphere pressure, and it is a simple route to prepare HMF from lignocellulosic feedstock on a large scale.