Heterogeneous catalysis for the conversion of fructose to chemicals and fuel in a continuous flow process The valorization of carbohydrates is one of the most promising fields in green chemistry as it enables to produce bulk chemicals and fuels out of renewable and abundant resources instead of further exploiting fossil feedstocks. The focus in this thesis is the conversion of fructose using dehydration and hydrodeoxygenation reactions. The main goal is to find an easy continuous process including the solubility of the sugar in a green solvent the conversion over a solid acid as well as over a metal@tungsten carbide catalyst. At the beginning of this thesis solid acid catalysts are synthesized by using carbohydrate material like glucose and starch at high temperatures (up to 600 °C). Additionally a third carbon is synthesized using an activation method based on Ca(OH)2. After carbonization and further sulfonation using fuming sulfuric acid the three resulting catalysts are characterized together with sulfonated carbon black and Amberlyst 15 as references. In order to test all solid acid catalysts in reaction a 250 mm x 4.6 mm stainless steel column is used as a fixed bed continuous reactor. The temperature (110 °C to 250 °C) and residence time (2 to 30 minutes) is varied and a direct relationship between contact time and selectivity is determined. The reaction mechanism as well as the product distribution is showing a dehydration step of fructose towards 5 hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). These furan ring molecules are considered as “sleeping giants” due to the possibility of using them as fuel but also for upgrading them to chemicals like terephthalic acid or p xylene. ...