Levulinic Acid Synthesis from Indonesian Sugarcane Bagasse using Two-step Acid Catalyzed Treatment

In the last decade, the concern of fossil-based oil or petroleum crisis has driven the acceleration of biorefinery application. This method refers to the utilization of biomass as substituent for petroleum to meet the community needs. One of prospective biorefinery products is levulinic acid. Sugarcane bagasses (SCB) has attracted a lot of attention as a biomass source for producing levulinic acid. In this study, levulinic acid (LA) was synthesized from Indonesian sugarcane bagasse (SCB) using two-step acid catalyzed treatment method, optimizing product yield. These experiments were conducted in a batch stirred reactor with stirring rate of 50 rpm for 30 min. The effect of HCl concentration (0.5 and 1.0 M) and solid mass-liquid volume ratio (1:10, 1:12.5, 1:15, 1:17.5 and 1:20) at temperature of 160 degrees C were investigated. The highest levulinic yield was 43.42%, obtained at 1.0 M of hydrochloric acid concentration and 1:17.5 of solid mass-liquid volume ratio.