Conversion of Fructose into Levulinic Acid by Catalysis of Ionic Liquid

Liu, L.; Ren, Hai

doi:10.2991/bep-16.2017.21

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…The sugarcane industry may be identified as a model of circular and renewable economy in which biomass can be converted into sugar, ethanol, electricity, heat, fertilizer, and many other products, such as cellulosic hydrolysate, butanol, lactic acid, and levulinic acid (LA). , Levulinic acid is a γ-keto acid that represents a promising renewable chemical platform. Industrial applications of levulinic acid include fuel additives, paints, plastics, lubricants, food additives, fertilizers, etc. , Currently, most of the research on levulinic acid production from industrial feedstocks is focused on lignocellulosic biomass, ,, although there are examples morefocused on the study of catalysts using glucose, − fructose, ,,− or sucrose as reactants. ,− According to these studies, heterogeneous catalysts provide yields of levulinic acid up to 68 mol %, whereas homogeneous catalysts provide yields up to 80 mol %.…”

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confidence: 99%

Feasibility of the Conversion of Sugarcane Molasses to Levulinic Acid: Reaction Optimization and Techno-Economic Analysis

Lopes

Silva

Nascimento

et al. 2021

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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The levulinic acid chemical platform is still unfeasible due to the lack of a cost-competitive process. Therefore, this work investigates the conversion of sugarcane molasses to levulinic acid. A design of experiments was used to optimize temperature, sulfuric acid loading in aqueous solution, and the ratio of sulfuric acid solution to sugarcane molasses via a genetic algorithm-based multiobjective optimization. Optimized results indicated that a yield of levulinic acid of 83.8 mol % is attainable with a concentration of 129 g L −1 . Based on these optimized conditions, a biorefinery was simulated to produce sugar, ethanol, electricity, and levulinic acid (all sugarcane molasses converted to levulinic acid). A techno-economic analysis of the simulation results showed that an internal rate of return of 33.1% is attainable at the current market price of levulinic acid, and the calculated minimum selling price of levulinic acid ($0.679 kg −1 ) indicates that many other applications might be possible for this renewable chemical. Overall, the results showed that using sugarcane molasses in the production of levulinic acid is both cost-competitive and technically feasible.

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