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Production of levulinic acid from glucose by dual solid‐acid catalysts
Author(s) -
Acharjee Tapas C.,
Lee Yoon Y.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.12659
Subject(s) - levulinic acid , chemistry , catalysis , isomerization , lewis acids and bases , fructose , calcination , brønsted–lowry acid–base theory , zeolite , yield (engineering) , organic chemistry , materials science , metallurgy
Levulinic acid (LA) is a versatile specialty chemical usable as a building‐block for synthesis of various chemicals. In this study, a series of solid Lewis acid catalysts were prepared and tested for glucose to fructose isomerization. We also tested Amberlyst‐15, primarily a Bronsted solid acid with limited ‐sites of Lewis acid, to investigate conversion of fructose to LA. Among the Lewis solid acid catalysts tested, tin imbedded on large‐pore zeolite (Sn‐Beta) has shown the highest specific activity in isomerization of glucose to fructose in aqueous media. The concurrent use of the dual‐catalysts of Sn‐beta and Amberlyst‐15 was further investigated. The dual‐acid catalyst has improved the yield of LA over that of Amberlyst‐15 alone, from 37 to 45% of the theoretical maximum. The improvement was due to enhanced isomerization of glucose to fructose by Sn‐Beta. Stability tests have shown that the Sn‐beta zeolite catalyst loses 20% of its activity after five consecutive batch‐cycles. The activity of this catalyst, however, was fully regenerated by calcination. Ambelyst‐15 also suffers from deactivation, which is lower than that of Sn‐Beta. The deactivation is primarily due to humin deposit on the surface of the catalyst. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 471–480, 2018