Esterification of Renewable Levulinic Acid to n‐Butyl Levulinate over Modified H‐ZSM‐5

Abstract

The synthesis of n‐butyl levulinate, one of the most important biodiesel additives, by catalytic esterification of biomass‐derived levulinic acid (LA) with n‐butanol over modified H‐ZSM‐5 (micro/meso‐HZ‐5) in a closed‐batch system is reported for the first time. The optimization of the reaction conditions such as the reactant molar ratio, the catalyst loading, the reaction time and the temperature was performed in view to maximize the yield of n‐butyl levulinate. Micro/meso‐HZ‐5 was found to be the most efficient catalyst, with 98 % yield of n‐butyl levulinate and a reusability for six cycles, which is higher than reported in the literature. A possible catalytic mechanism for the esterification reaction is also proposed. A second‐order pseudo‐homogeneous model with R2 > 0.97 confirmed that the esterification reaction is performed in the kinetic regime due to the high activation energy of 23.84 kJ mol−1.

Esterification of Free Fatty Acids Derived from Waste Cooking Oil with Octanol: Process Optimization and Kinetic Modeling

“…The near linear relationship ( R 2 = 0.98) between X A /(1 – X A ) and t (with X A being the fractional conversion of oleic acid and t being the time) clearly indicates the validity of the PH model in describing the kinetic behavior. Various other workers have also applied the PH model to represent the kinetics of esterification reactions with heterogeneous catalysts and have reported a close proximity between the model predictions and experimental data 6, 7, 14–16.…”

Efficient Production of N-Butyl Levulinate Fuel Additive from Levulinic Acid Using Amorphous Carbon Enriched with Oxygenated Groups

“…Sulfonated glucose-derived carbon (denoted as GC400) was prepared according to Hara's method [23] with minor modifications. All the chemicals were purchased from Sinopharm Chemcial Reagent Company (Beijing, China).…”

“…However, the literature on the synthesis of BL via the esterification of LA are sparse. Several types of solid acids such as supported montmorillonite [21], zeolites [22,23], metal-organic frameworks [24], Al-MCM-41 [25], ion-exchange resins [26,27], graphene oxide [28] and immobilized lipase [29] have been utilized in the esterification of LA with n-butanol. Surprisingly, the catalysis with amorphous carbon materials to produce BL has not been explored before.…”

Kinetics of catalyzed esterification of acetic acid with n‐butanol using carbonized agro‐waste

“…A number of workers have focused on the study of the mechanism of homogeneous acid catalyst 1,8,9,10,16 and heterogeneous catalyst, 2,3,4,6,7,12 but it is equally important to pay the attention on enhancing the yield of reaction. Therefore, an attempt has been made to research and develop more efficient catalysts which will generate high yield of ester, under optimum reaction conditions.…”