Production of levulinic acid and alkyl levulinates: A process insight

Daniele Di Menno Di Bucchianico (1) , Yanjun Wang (2) , Jean-Christophe Buvat (1) , Yong Pan (2) , Valeria Casson Moreno (3) , Sébastien Leveneur (1)

1 LSPC - Laboratoire de Sécurité des Procédés Chimiques
2 NJUST - Nanjing University of Science and Technology
3 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna

The use of lignocellulosic biomass in the chemical industry has increased due to its non-competition with the food sector. Several platform molecules can be produced from this biomass. Among them, levulinic acid and its esters have been produced on an industrial scale. There are some reviews on the production of levulinic acid (LA) but few on the production of levulinates (LEs). To fill this gap, this review was written by also considering the environmental aspects. In the first stage, recent progress in the production of these platform chemicals was discussed. Production processes of alkyl levulinates from levulinic acid esterification, precursors (HMF, furfural, etc.), sugar monomers (glucose, fructose, etc.), cellulose, hemicellulose, or cellulose directly from lignocellulosic biomass were described. In the second stage, process separation and purification of LA and LEs were discussed. The final stage proposed an economic and environmental consideration for the production of these chemicals.

Domaines: Génie chimique; Catalyse; Polymères

Daniele Di Menno Di Bucchianico, Yanjun Wang, Jean-Christophe Buvat, Yong Pan, Valeria Casson Moreno, et al.. Production of levulinic acid and alkyl levulinates: A process insight. Green Chemistry, In press, ⟨10.1039/D1GC02457D⟩. ⟨hal-03498103⟩