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 ZnCI~ in the presence of hydrochloric acid, and the yield of glucose is 75% in 120 s at reaction temperature of 95 ℃. 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 ℃ for 0.5-4 h. The yield of HMF was 53% when CrC13 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.
