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• 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was produced from cane molasses by dilute acid catalysis. • A hyper-cross-linked resin (HCLR) was designed and synthesized. • HCLR was applied for separating and purifying HMF from cane molasses hydrolysate. • HCLR had excellent adsorption performance for HMF, and can be reused stably. Sugarcane molasses is a by-product in the process of sugar production, which has characteristics of large quantity, low price and easy to pollute the environment. High-valued utilization of sugarcane molasses has important research significance. In this work, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was obtained through hydrolyzing sugarcane molasses, and was separated from the hydrolysate by a designed hyper-cross-linked adsorption resin (HCLR). The optimal conditions for adsorption/desorption of HMF by HCLR were obtained. On this basis, the adsorption kinetics, equilibrium and thermodynamic behavior of HMF onto HCLR were studied, and the adsorption mechanism of HMF onto HCLR was clarified. At last, HMF with a highest purity of 96.0% and an average purity of 93.2% were obtained through fixed bed dynamic adsorption/desorption study. Overall, this work provides a complete process route from sugarcane molasses to high-value product of HMF, and provides theoretical and technical references for the efficient and comprehensive utilization of sugarcane molasses resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]