Alcoholysis of Furfuryl Alcohol into n-Butyl Levulinate Over SBA-16 Supported Heteropoly Acid Catalyst

In this work, n-butyl levulinate a potential renewable chemical in the energy sector and in the field of fine chemical synthesis has been synthesized via alcoholysis of furfuryl alcohol in batch process at atmospheric pressure over SBA-16 supported tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) catalyst. In order to characterize and correlate the catalytic activity, the wet impregnated TPA/SBA-16 catalysts were subjected to the physico chemical characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, N-2-physisorption, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, NH3-TPD and pyridine adsorbed FT-IR analysis. The retention of 3D mesoporous structure and TPA structure even after impregnation was confirmed by XRD and N-2-physisorption. The impregnation of TPA over SBA-16 creates the more number of available active acidic sites for the reactants. 25 wt% TPA/SBA-16 offers 97% selectivity to n-butyl levulinate with complete conversion of furfuryl alcohol in 3 h. Various reaction parameters were optimized to achieve the best catalytic activity. These results imply that the conversion of furfuryl alcohol to n-butyl levulinate go on with the formation of the intermediate 2-butoxymethylfuran. The recyclability of the catalyst and characterization of the spent catalyst was also studied. SBA-16 supported TPA catalyst is effective in the conversion of furfuryl alcohol to n-butyl levulinate at atmospheric pressure.