Esterification of Levulinic Acid to n-Butyl Levulinate Over Various Acidic Zeolites

Author： Maheria Kalpana Kozinski Janusz Dalai Ajay

ISSN： 1011-372X

Source： Catalysis Letters, Vol.143, Iss.11, 2013-11, pp. : 1220-1225

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Abstract

Levulinic acid (LA) has been recognized as a versatile building block for the synthesis of various organic chemicals as it contains ketone and carboxylic functional groups. Levulinate esters are important chemical feedstocks having potential applications either in flavouring and fragrance industries or biodiesel as blending component. The present work focuses on the synthesis of n-butyl levulinate by esterification of LA with n-butanol using various small and large pore zeolites. The preferential order to yield n-butyl levulinate was found to be: H-BEA > H-Y > H-ZSM-5 > H-MOR. Further, a study for optimizing the reaction conditions such as acid to n-butanol molar ratio, reaction time and catalyst concentration has been described. Under optimized reaction conditions, zeolite H-BEA has been found as most efficient catalyst with 82.2 % LA conversion and 100 % selectivity of n-butyl levulinate.

Scheme: Zeolite catalyzed esterification of levulinic acid