Sustainable Synthesis of A Novel Zirconium-Coordinated Biochar Catalyst from Sawdusts for Conversion of Ethyl Levulinate to γ-Valerolactone

Comprehensive use of available biomass, especially low-cost forestry waste to produce bioenergy, materials have great meaning for realization of green and sustainable chemical processes. In this work, forestry sawdusty waste (SD) was used to produce biochar (SDBC-P) via a H 3 PO 4 assisted hydrothermal carbonization method. And a novel zirconium-coordinated biochar catalyst Zr-SDBC-P has been prepared by self-assembly method. Characterization results revealed that hydrothermal carbonization in the presence of H 3 PO 4 promoted the formation of oxygen-containing functional groups (–COOH, Ar–OH) which were used as ligand to obtain high contents of Lewis acid − base sites (Zr 4+ –O 2− ). Zr-SDBC-P-4 showed satisfactory catalytic activity in synthesis of bioderived γ-valerolactone (GVL) from ethyl levulinate (EL). EL conversion of 98.2% and GVL selectivity of 85.4% were obtained within 5 h at 170 °C. In addition, Zr-SDBC-P-4 displayed outstanding chemical stability. There was no obvious decrease of GVL yield after being used for six cycles. Overall, this work offered a viewpoint to design catalyst from value-added utilization of biomass waste. Graphical Abstract