期刊
FUEL
卷 346, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128371
关键词
Cellulose; Ethyl levulinate; gamma-Valerolactone; Co-solvent; Mechanistic role
The addition of β-valerolactone (GVL) co-solvent during the acid-catalyzed conversion of cellulose in ethanol improves the reaction rate and catalytic activity for producing ethyl levulinate (EL). GVL not only aids in the dissolution and depolymerization of cellulose, but also enhances the acidity and catalytic activity of the Al species, resulting in higher yields and faster reaction rates for EL production.
Direct utilization of cellulosic material to produce specialty chemicals such as levulinate ester could greatly increase biorefinery profitability, but low-level efficiency due to its structural nature limits the strategy for industrial deployment. We report herein that adding ?-valerolactone (GVL) co-solvent during the acid-catalyzed conversion of cellulose in ethanol leads to a high reaction rate and improved catalytic activity towards ethyl levulinate (EL) production. With GVL as the co-solvent (the volume ratio of GVL to ethanol in 1:4), the yield of EL highly enhanced from 31% to 56% under mild operating conditions (170? for 2 h) over a low loading Al(OTf)(3) of 0.005 mol/L. The mechanistic role of GVL co-solvent to accelerate EL formation from cellulose has been fully elucidated via the combination of experimental and theoretical approaches. It demonstrates that GVL intervention not only favored the dissolution and depolymerization of cellulose, but also enabled the formation of Al species with higher acidity and catalytic activity by modulating the solvation environment, both of which are in charge of promoting cellulose conversion to EL. The activation energy barriers for cellulose depolymerization and glucoside alcoholysis have decreased by 30.8 kJ/mol and 24.8 kJ/mol, respectively. The understanding of this solvation effect can be employed to optimize the rate and yield for production of the versatile bio-based ester compound straight from cellulose valorization.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据