Dezhang Ren,Jun Fu,Lu Li,Yunjie Liu,Fangming Jin,Zhibao Huo
An efficient process for the production of levulinate esters from biomass-derived furfuryl alcohol in liquid alcohol over commercial α-Fe2O3 was firstly investigated. Among the catalysts we tested, α-Fe2O3, a cheap, commercially available and environmentally benign catalyst, exhibited a remarkable catalytic performance for the transformation and gives levulinate esters in good yield compared to the previous studies. The corresponding esters such as methyl levulinate, ethyl levulinate and butyl levulinate were obtained in high yields under optimized reaction conditions. Several influence factors for the formation of levulinate esters were also discussed. A plausible reaction mechanism for the formation of levulinate ester from furfuryl alcohol was proposed. From the viewpoint of practice and economy, the present study provides a potential application for the efficient synthesis of fine chemicals from biomass-derived compounds over cheap, commercially available and environmentally benign catalysts.
Changhua Song,Sijie Liu,Xinwen Peng,Jinxing Long,Wenyong Lou,Xuehui Li
Graphical Iconic ionic : Heteropolyanion-based ionic liquids are used as catalysts for the conversion of renewable carbohydrates to levulinate esters. The process can be operated under mild conditions, and the catalyst can be recovered readily by self-separation through temperature control. The catalyst shows excellent reusability, and a satisfactory yield can be obtained even after the 10th run. An efficient one-pot approach for the production of levulinate ester from renewable carbohydrates is demonstrated over heteropolyanion-based ionic liquid (IL-POM) catalysts with alcohols as the promoters and solvents. The relationships between the structure, acidic strength, and solubility of the IL-POM in methanol and the catalytic performance were studied intensively. A cellulose conversion of 100 % could be achieved with a 71.4 % yield of methyl levulinate over the catalyst [PyPS] 3 PW 12 O 40 [PyPS=1-(3-sulfopropyl)pyridinium] at 150 °C for 5 h. This high efficiency is ascribed to the reasonably high activity of the ionic liquid (IL) catalyst and reaction coupling with rapid in situ esterification of the generated levulinic acid with the alcohol promoter, which allows the insolubility of cellulose encountered in biomass conversion to be overcome. Furthermore, the present process exhibits high feedstock adaptability for typical carbohydrates and handy catalyst recovery by a simple self-separation procedure through temperature control.