Production of Biomass-Derived p-Hydroxybenzamide: Synthesis of p-Aminophenol and Paracetamol

As we work to transition the modern society that is based on non-renewable chemical feedstocks to a post-modern society built around renewable sources of energy, fuels, and chemicals, there is a need to identify the renewable resources and processes for converting them to platform chemicals. Herein, we explore a strategy for utilizing the p-hydroxybenzoate in biomass feedstocks (e. g., poplar and palm trees) and converting it into a portfolio of commodity chemicals. The targeted bio-derived product in the first processing stage is p-hydroxybenzamide produced from p-hydroxybenzoate esters found in the plant. In the second stage a continuous reaction process converts the p-hydroxybenzamide to p-aminophenol via the Hofmann rearrangement and recovers the unreacted p-hydroxybenzamide. In the third stage the p-aminophenol can be acetylated to form paracetamol, which is readily isolated by liquid/liquid extraction at >95 % purity and an overall p-hydroxybenzamide-to-paracetamol process yield of ~90 %. We explore how utilization of protecting groups alters the challenges in this process and expands the portfolio of possible products to include p-(methoxymethoxy)aniline and N-acetyl-p-(methoxymethoxy)aniline. These target compounds could become value-added renewably-sourced platform chemicals that could be used to produce biodegradable plastics, pigments, and pharmaceuticals.