The levulinic acid chemical platform is still unfeasible due to the lack of a cost-competitive process. Therefore, this work investigates the conversion of sugarcane molasses to levulinic acid. A design of experiments was used to optimize temperature, sulfuric acid loading in aqueous solution, and the ratio of sulfuric acid solution to sugarcane molasses via a genetic algorithm-based multiobjective optimization. Optimized results indicated that a yield of levulinic acid of 83.8 mol % is attainable with a concentration of 129 g L −1 . Based on these optimized conditions, a biorefinery was simulated to produce sugar, ethanol, electricity, and levulinic acid (all sugarcane molasses converted to levulinic acid). A techno-economic analysis of the simulation results showed that an internal rate of return of 33.1% is attainable at the current market price of levulinic acid, and the calculated minimum selling price of levulinic acid ($0.679 kg −1 ) indicates that many other applications might be possible for this renewable chemical. Overall, the results showed that using sugarcane molasses in the production of levulinic acid is both cost-competitive and technically feasible.

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