A high yield of levulinic acid was produced by directly converting cellulose over a ZrO 2 catalyst by a one-pot catalytic aqueous phase partial oxidation (APPO) process. Compared to conventional acid hydrolysis, APPO is a highly selective and environmentally benign process with merits of easy recovery and re-use of heterogeneous catalysts.Conversion of cellulosic biomass is of vital importance in the biofuel/ biochemical industry. 1 Recently, several groups have reported that combining hydrolysis and hydrogenolysis of cellulose over noble metal 2 or metal carbide 3 catalysts produced sugar alcohols or polyols such as sorbitol, mannitol, or ethylene glycol, which are precursors in the production of fuels, polymers, and pharmaceuticals. However, these processes suffer from the high costs associated with mineral acids, cellulase enzymes, noble metals, external hydrogen, etc.
This paper describes a new and environmentally friendly process for developing biodiesel from commercial feather meal, a waste product of the poultry industry. Currently, feather meal is used as an animal feed, given its high protein content, and also as a fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content. In this work, we have extracted fat from the feather meal in boiling water (70 degrees C) and then transesterified the fat into biodiesel using KOH and methanol; 7-11% biodiesel (on a dry basis) is produced in this process. ASTM analysis of the prepared feather meal biodiesel confirmed that the biodiesel is of good quality and comparable to other biodiesels made from other common feedstocks. Given the amount of feather meal produced by the poultry industry, it is estimated that this process can create 150-200 million gallons of biodiesel in the United States and 593.2 million gallons worldwide.
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