Glucose is one of the primary derivative products from lignocellulosic biomass, which is abundantly available. Glucose has excellent potential to be converted into valuable compounds such as ethanol, sorbitol, gluconic acid, and levulinic acid (LA). Levulinic acid is an exceptionally promising green platform chemical. It comprises two functional groups, ketone and carboxylate, acting as highly reactive electrophiles for a nucleophilic attack. Therefore, it has extensive applications, including fuel additives, raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, and cosmetics. This study reports the reaction kinetics of LA synthesis from glucose catalyzed by hydrochloric acid (HCl), a Bronsted acid, that was carried out under a wide range of operating conditions; i.e. the temperature of 140–180 °C, catalyst concentration of 0.5–1.5 M, and initial glucose concentration of 0.1–0.5 M. The highest LA yield of 48.34 % was able to be obtained from an initial glucose concentration of 0.1 M and by using 1 M HCl at 180 °C. The experimental results show that the Bronsted acid-catalyzed reaction pathway consists of glucose decomposition to levoglucosan (LG), conversion of LG to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and rehydration of HMF to LA. The experimental data yields a good fitting by assuming a first-order reaction model. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).
The abundance of sugarcane bagasse, a by-product of sugarcane juice extraction in sugar factories, serves as an advantage of its potential for producing chemicals such as levulinic acid (LA). Levulinic acid contains carbonyl and carboxyl groups that can be utilized for many applications, such as pharmacies, cosmetics, and solvents. Bagasse hydrolysis into LA was preceded by alkalineacid pretreatment to separate cellulose from hemicellulose and lignin. This treatment could minimize the disturbance of these unwanted components, so that LA synthesis would be more optimal. Pretreated bagasse contained 82.64% cellulose, about two-fold from the non-pretreated one. It was hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid (HCl), which acts as a catalyst (a Bronsted acid), at 150-170 o C, 0.1-1 M catalyst concentration, 1-10% solid-to-liquid (cellulose:catalyst-solution) ratio, and 0-200 minutes reaction time. The range of LA yield values obtained in the study were between 15-64.05%. The maximum LA yield was obtained at a temperature of 160 o C, 1 M catalyst concentration, and 1% solid-to-liquid ratio. The high LA yield indicates the importance of pretreatment supported by optimal conditions of synthetic reaction. The reaction route involved in hydrolysis was cellulose-glucose-levoglucosan (LG)-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)-LA. The result exhibits that temperature and catalyst concentration do not significantly affect the maximum potential LA yield. However, higher temperatures and catalyst concentration can accelerate the time to achieve the maximum potential LA yield. Meanwhile, the LA yield increases with a lower solidto-liquid ratio. In contrast to previous studies, this study evaluated the reaction model in a more precise way using combination of models, considering that the reaction occurs between solid and liquid. The heterogeneous reaction model, namely the shrinking core model (SCM) for cellulose conversion to glucose and the first-order homogeneous reaction model for glucose to LA reaction, give good fitting results. The more appropriate reaction model is expected to be the basis of scaleup process carried out for industry one day. The results of this research have the potential to be applied for various other biomass raw materials with some improvements based on their characteristics which can be studied in the future.
Glucose is the primary derivative of lignocellulosic biomass, which is abundantly available. Glucose has excellent potential to be converted into valuable compounds such as ethanol, sorbitol, gluconic acid, and levulinic acid (LA). Levulinic acid is a very promising green platform chemical. It is composed of two functional groups, ketone and carboxylate groups which can act as highly reactive electrophiles for nucleophilic attack so it has extensive applications, including fuel additives, raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, and cosmetics. The reaction kinetics of LA synthesis from glucose using hydrochloric acid catalyst (bronsted acid) were studied in a wide range of operating conditions, i.e., temperature of 140-180 oC, catalyst concentration of 0.5-1.5 M, and initial glucose concentration of 0.1-0.5 M. The highest LA yield is 48.34 %wt at 0.1 M initial glucose concentration, 1 M HCl, and temperature of 180 oC. The experimental results show that the bronsted acid catalyst's reaction pathway consists of glucose decomposition to levoglucosan (LG), conversion of LG to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and rehydration of HMF to LA. The experimental data yields a good fitting by assuming a first-order reaction model.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.