Production of levulinic acid and ethyl levulinate from cellulosic pulp derived from the cooking of lignocellulosic biomass with active oxygen and solid alkali

Chen Gong; Junnan Wei; Xing Tang; Xianhai Zeng; Yong Sun; Lu Lin

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.36, No.5, 740-752, May, 2019

DOI10.1007/s11814-019-0254-6 Export Citation

Production of levulinic acid and ethyl levulinate from cellulosic pulp derived from the cooking of lignocellulosic biomass with active oxygen and solid alkali

Chen Gong¹, Junnan Wei¹, Xing Tang^{1, 2, †}, Xianhai Zeng^{1, 2}, Yong Sun^{1, 2}, and Lu Lin^{1, 2, †}

¹Xiamen Key Laboratory of Clean and High-valued Applications of Biomass, College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
²Fujian Engineering and Research Center of Clean and High-valued Technologies for Biomass, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China

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Biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) and its esters are currently envisaged as versatile, renewable platform chemicals. In this study, cellulosic pulp derived from the cooking of lignocellulosic biomass with active oxygen and solid alkali was employed as raw material for the formation of LA or ethyl levulinate (EL). This pretreatment process is highly effective for the delignification and deconstruction of lignocellulose matrix, making a facile degradation of the resulting cellulosic pulp to LA or EL. At this point, the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis or ethanolysis of cellulosic pulp was optimized by response surface methodology (RSM), offering desirable LA yield of 65.3% or EL yield of 62.7%, which is significantly higher than those obtained from raw biomass. More importantly, coking behavior on the inwall of the reactor was eliminated during the hydrolysis or ethanolysis of cellulosic pulp, which is one of the top challenges for the acid-catalyzed conversion of biomass in an industrial scale.

Keywords:Biomass;Pretreatment;Levulinic Acid;Ethyl Levulinate

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[Referenced By]

[1] Tan Z, Chen K, Liu P, Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 41, 368 (2015)

[2] Pileidis FD, Titirici MM, ChemSusChem, 9, 562 (2016)

[3] Kataria R, Mol A, Schulten E, Happel A, Mussatto SI, Ind. Crop. Prod., 106, 48 (2017)

[4] Apiwatanapiwat W, Vaithanomsat P, Ushiwaka S, Morimitsu K, Machida M, Thanapase W, Murata Y, Kosugi A, Biomass Convers. Bior., 6, 181 (2016)

[5] Janusz G, Pawlik A, Sulej J, Swiderska-Burek U, Jarosz-Wilkolazka A, Paszcznski A, Fems Microbiol. Rev., 41, 941 (2017)

[6] Wang W, Zhang C, Sun X, Su S, Li Q, Linhardt RJ, World J. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 33, 125 (2017)

[7] Alvarez-Vasco C, Ma R, Quintero M, Guo M, Geleynse S, Ramasamy KK, Wolcott M, Zhang X, Green Chem., 18, 5133 (2016)

[8] Francisco M, van den Bruinhorst A, Kroon MC, Green Chem., 14, 2153 (2012)

[9] Tadesse H, Luque R, Energy Environ. Sci., 4, 3913 (2011)

[10] Vallejos ME, Zambon MD, Area MC, da Silva Curvelo AA, Ind. Crop. Prod., 65, 349 (2015)

[11] Kvarnlof N, Germgard U, BioResources, 10, 3934 (2015)

[12] Naqvi M, Dahlquist E, Nizami AS, Danish M, Naqvi S, Farooq U, Qureshi AS, Rehan M, Energy Procedia, 142, 977 (2017)

[13] Jiang Y, Zeng X, Luque R, Tang X, Sun Y, Lei T, Liu S, Lin L, ChemSusChem, 10, 3982 (2017)

[14] Jiang Y, Ding N, Luo B, Li Z, Tang X, Zeng X, Sun Y, Liu S, Lei T, Lin L, ChemCatChem, 9, 2544 (2017)

[15] Yang Q, Shi J, Lin L, Zhuang J, Pang C, Xie T, Liu Y, J. Agric. Food Chem., 60, 4656 (2012)

[16] Bozell JJ, Moens L, Elliott D, Wang Y, Neuenscwander G, Fitzpatrick S, Bilski R, Jarnefeld J, Resour. Conserv. Recycl., 28, 227 (2000)

[17] Im H, Kim B, Lee JW, Bioresour. Technol., 193, 386 (2015)

[18] Kim TH, Oh YK, Lee JW, Chang YK, Algal Res., 26, 431 (2017)

[19] Yang J, Park J, Son J, Kim B, Lee JW, Bioresour. Technol. Rep., 2, 84 (2018)

[20] Li X, Lei T, Wang Z, Li X, Wen M, Yang M, Chen G, He X, Guan Q, Li Z, Ind. Crop. Prod., 116, 73 (2018)

[21] Liu CG, Feng QN, Yang JR, Qi XH, Bioresour. Technol., 255, 50 (2018)

[22] Du J, Xiong C, Luo B, Sun Y, Tang X, Zeng X, Lei T, Liu S, Lin L, BioResources, 12, 5851 (2017)

[23] Chang C, Cen PL, Ma XJ, Bioresour. Technol., 98(7), 1448 (2007)

[24] Jeong GT, Park DH, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol., 161(1-8), 41 (2010)

[25] Peng L, Lin L, Li H, Ind. Crop. Prod., 40, 136 (2012)

[26] Li H, Peng L, Lin L, Chen K, Zhang H, J. Energy Chem., 22, 895 (2013)

[27] Chang C, Xu GZ, Jiang XX, Bioresour. Technol., 121, 93 (2012)

[28] Rackemann DW, Bartley JP, Harrison MD, Doherty WO, RSC Adv., 6, 74525 (2016)

[29] Ding D, Xi J, Wang J, Liu X, Lu G, Wang Y, Green Chem., 17, 4037 (2015)

[30] Gamez S, Gonzalez-Cabriales JJ, Ramirez JA, Garrote G, Vazquez M, J. Food Eng., 74(1), 78 (2006)

[31] Kim HS, Jeong GT, Korean J. Chem. Eng., 35(11), 2232 (2018)

[32] Zhong K, Wang Q, Carbohydr. Polym., 80, 19 (2010)

[33] Ramli NAS, Amin NAS, BioEnergy Res., 10, 50 (2017)

[34] Yang C, Song HL, Chen F, Zou T, J. Food Sci., 76, C1267 (2011)

[35] Muranaka Y, Suzuki T, Sawanishi H, Hasegawa I, Mae K, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 53(29), 11611 (2014)

[36] Shen F, Smith RL, Li L, Yan L, Qi X, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 5, 2421 (2017)