Conversion of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural to biodiesel additives: role of the acidity and morphology of microporous and mesoporous catalysts

5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) represents a platform molecule to obtain biofuels additives, particularly for biodiesel [1]. In fact, HMF may be converted with ethanol to valuable components of biofuels by acid catalysis. In this work an heterogeneous approach was used, exploiting both microporous and mesoporous catalysts, wich allows to overcome the environmental problems related to the traditional homogeneous system. As microporous materials, zeolite based catalyst in protonic, ammonium and as made form were tested. Instead, with mesoporous catalyst, the target reaction was performed with mesoporous silica SBA-15, zirconia (Z-SBA-15) or sulfated zirconia (SZ-SBA-15) supported on SBA-15. The catalytic reaction of HMF with ethanol was carried out in an autoclave (Teflon-lined) at 140 °C for 5 h under autogeneous pressure. The system was stirred at about 1500 rpm, and the final mixture was analyzed by Finnigan GC–MS.