Abstract
As one of the essential additives in biodiesel and flavoring agents, solvents, and plasticizers in industry, ethyl levulinate (EL) has gained attention in the last two decades, and the global production of the compound is rapidly increased over the years. So far, esterification of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) with ethanol (EtOH) in the presence of highly corrosive mineral acid catalysts is the most common technique for the reaction. To avoid the harsh environment during the reaction and to ease the separation of the catalyst, the research has been recently focused on developing highly active solid acid catalysts. In this research, we have systematically investigated the catalytic activity of sulfonic acid-functionalized silica (SiO2-SO3H) with different hydrophobicity for esterification of LA with EtOH. The hydrophobicity of SiO2-SO3H was tuned by incorporating three different alkylsilanes, e.g., methyl (Me), octyl (Oct), and hexadecyl (HD) silanes on the surface of the material. We found that the longer the alkyl group, the lower the acidity and thus resulted in the lower the catalytic activity. On the other hand, the particle size and hydrophobicity increase with the length in the alkyl group. SiO2-SO3H modified with the methyl group (SiO2-SO3H/Me) showed the highest acidity (0.76 mmol g–1) and the highest catalytic performance (70.6% conversion). Moreover, while all alkyl-modified catalysts followed pseudo-first-order, the pseudo-first-order rate constant (k1p) for the reaction over SiO2-SO3H/Me was 5.4 × 10–3 min–1. The kinetic results of this study could be useful for reactor modeling and simulation in the future.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.