Kinetics on the Acid-Catalyzed Decomposition of Methyl Glucosides to Methyl Levulinate

Abstract

Levulinate esters have been identified as a class of promising green, biomass derived versatile chemicals. Here, a kinetic study on one of the key steps in the acid-catalyzed alcoholysis of cellulose to methyl levulinate, i.e., the decomposition of methyl glucosides to methyl levulinate was reported firstly. The kinetic experiments were performed in a temperature window of 170–200 C using extremely low sulfuric acid as the catalyst (≤0.01 mol L−1), and initial methyl glucosides concentration between 0.1 and 0.3 mol L−1. An empirical rate expression for the main reaction to methyl levulinate and the side reaction to undesired by-products was developed using the first-order kinetic model. A good agreement between the experimental and the kinetic data is obtained. The kinetic expressions were employed to gain insights into the optimum process conditions for batch processing, and the highest predicted yield of methyl levulinate can reach around 55% after a reaction time of 120 min.