Levulinic Acid Production Using Solid-Acid Catalysis

Abstract

Levulinic acid (LA) is one of the compounds included in the list of the 12 chemicals, known as “building blocks” obtained from biomass. One route to synthesize levulinic acid is from furfuryl alcohol (FA), which is a compound that can be obtained from biomass. For this route, the hydration and ring opening of FA is necessary. Usually, the hydration takes place using homogeneous strong acid catalysts, being the disadvantages of using homogeneous acid catalysts well-known. Therefore, this work has studied the production of LA using heterogeneous catalysts such as ion exchange resins, zeolites, and acidic clays. The LA yield was increased by the optimal control of FA feed. The initial catalyst screening study showed results up to 62% in LA yield. Then, an optimization procedure was developed using the ZSM-5 catalyst, reaching a maximum LA yield of 77%.