One-Pot Production of 2,5-Furandimethanol from Fructose Co-catalyzed with Formic Acid and Heterogeneous Co Catalysts

2,5-Furandimethanol (FDM) is currently produced via a two-step process involving fructose dehydration over inorganic acids (H2SO4 and HCl) and the subsequent hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) with H2. Because of the separation difficulty and unstable feature of HMF, the direct transformation of hexose to FDM is still challenging yet crucial. In this work, we first reported that formic acid served as both a renewable Bronsted acid and a hydrogen donor for one-pot dehydration–hydrogenation of fructose over a heterogeneous Co catalyst. Under optimal conditions of 170 °C for 3 h, 60.2% FDM yield was achieved with full conversion of fructose. Kinetic studies showed that the apparent activation energy (Ea) of the one-pot dehydration–hydrogenation of fructose was 80.5 kJ/mol and indicated that the rate-determining step of the whole process is fructose dehydration. The Co–NC catalyst was reusable and was also capable of gram-scale one-pot dehydration–hydrogenation of fructose.