Conversion of Glucose to Levulinic Acid Using SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 Solid Acid Catalysts

Biomass represents an abundant and relatively low cost carbon resource that can be utilized to produce platform chemicals such as levulinic acid. This study focused on the effect of SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 solid acid catalyst on the catalytic performance in levulinic acid production from biomass-derived carbohydrates glucose. The SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 solid acid catalyst showed a high catalytic activity for the selective conversion of glucose to levulinic acid. Experimental results showed that SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 solid acid had markedly catalytic effects on the conversion of glucose to levulinic acid. With SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 solid acid as the catalyst, an optimized ethyl levulinic acid was obtained at 180 degrees C for 2 h with glucose dosage of 2 wt% and 3 g SO42-/TiO2-Al2O3-SnO2 solid acid catalys and the levulinic acid yield was 74.05%.