Valorization of starchy, cellulosic, and sugary food waste into hydroxymethylfurfural by one-pot catalysis

This study aimed to produce a high-value platform chemical, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), from food waste and evaluate the catalytic performance of trivalent and tetravalent metals such as AlCl₃, CrCl₃, FeCl₃, Zr(O)Cl₂, and SnCl₄ for one-pot conversion. Starchy food waste, e.g., cooked rice and penne produced 4.0–8.1 wt% HMF and 46.0–64.8 wt% glucose over SnCl₄ after microwave heating at 140 °C for 20 min. This indicated that starch hydrolysis was effectively catalyzed but subsequent glucose isomerization was rate-limited during food waste valorization, which could be enhanced by 40-min reaction to achieve 22.7 wt% HMF from cooked rice. Sugary food waste, e.g., kiwifruit and watermelon, yielded up to 13 wt% HMF over Sn catalyst, which mainly resulted from naturally present fructose. Yet, organic acids in fruits may hinder Fe-catalyzed dehydration by competing for the Lewis sites. In contrast, conversion of raw mixed vegetables as cellulosic food waste was limited by marginal hydrolysis at the studied conditions (120–160 °C and 20–40 min). It is interesting to note that tetravalent metals enabled HMF production at a lower temperature and shorter time, while trivalent metals could achieve a higher HMF selectivity at an elevated temperature. Further studies on kinetics, thermodynamics, and reaction pathways of food waste valorization are recommended.