A review about GVL production from lignocellulose: Focusing on the full components utilization

Recent Advances in Ruthenium-Catalyzed Hydrogenation Reactions of Renewable Biomass-Derived Levulinic Acid in Aqueous Media

“…One of the most promising platform chemicals obtained from lignocellulose is levulinic acid (LA, Figure 1), which was selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) as one of the top twelve platform chemicals according to its report released in 2004 (Werpy and Petersen, 2004), as well as to the updated, revised and extended DOE's report in 2010 (Bozell and Petersen, 2010). LA is classified as a key platform chemical for the development of future biorefineries because of its broad spectrum of potential applications and because it is simply available with inexpensive and high yield production routes from lignocellulose biomass (Tang et al, 2014;Ye et al, 2020). The first industrial continuous process for the production of LA was developed by BioMetics Inc. in the earlies 1990's, which was well-known as the Biofine process, and proceeds in a proprietary two-reactor system using lignocellulose biomass as feedstock together with a sulfuric acid solution as a reagent.…”

“…In the last decade, the hydrogenation reactions of LA into γ-valerolactone (GVL, Figure 2), which is a key intermediate compound, and beyond GVL to yield 1,4-pentanediol (1,4-PDO, Figure 2) and valeric acid (VA, Figure 2), have gained considerable attention. Numerous heterogeneous catalytic systems based on precious and non-noble metals and water-soluble transition metal catalytic complexes have been developed in the absence and presence of organic or aqueous solvents (Serrano-Ruiz et al, 2011Tang et al, 2014;Yan et al, 2015a,b;Omoruyi et al, 2016;Pileidis and Titirici, 2016;Osatiashtiani et al, 2017;Makhubela and Darkwa, 2018;Xue et al, 2018;Dutta et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2019;Ye et al, 2020). The catalytic hydrogenation reaction of LA in the aqueous solvent is a more attractive and promising processing mode because the use of water combines several advantages: (i) the highly polar nature of the aqueous solvent makes it an ideal medium to convert polar, with high oxygen content, and hydrophilic platform chemicals such as the water-soluble starting material LA; (ii) water is involved as a byproduct to obtain the GVL intermediate, which is further hydrogenated into 1,4-PDO in the aqueous medium and, after dehydration and cyclization reactions 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF, Figure 2), is formed creating an aqueous/organic twophase system which provides for the easy separation of the polar aqueous reaction medium from a polar organic product 2-MTHF by a simple phase separation.…”

Effects of Gamma-Valerolactone Assisted Fractionation of Ball-Milled Pine Wood on Lignin Extraction and Its Characterization as Well as Its Corresponding Cellulose Digestion

“…Recently, gamma-valerolactone (GVL) has emerged as one such sustainable green solvent for biomass fractionation [17]. This organic solvent is a self-sustained non-toxic product formed within a lignocellulosic biorefinery and is capable enough to extract lignin at near-neutral solvent conditions [18]. Typically, GVL/acid/water has been mostly applied for an enhanced delignification rate with improved cellulose digestion [19].…”

Hydrogenative Cyclization of Levulinic Acid to γ-Valerolactone with Methanol and Ni-Fe Bimetallic Catalysts

“…Moreover, the transformation of LA into more added-value bio-fuels and bio-chemicals is strategic, thanks to its reactive keto and carboxylic functional groups, which can be exploited for the synthesis of many valuable bio-chemicals, such as fuel additives, fragrances, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and plasticizers [4]. Among these high-value chemicals, γ-valerolactone (GVL) is receiving considerable attention to synthesize added-value bio-chemicals, such as food additives, solvents, and drug intermediates, as well as new bio-fuels [5,6]. Three pathways have been proposed for GVL production, as reported in Scheme 1.…”

“…The second occurs in the liquid phase, at lower temperatures, where the LA keto group is reduced to 4-hydroxyvaleric acid, which is in turn dehydrated to GVL. Lastly, the third possibility provides the esterification of LA to the less reactive alkyl levulinate, which undergoes hydrogenation and dehydration to GVL [6]. such as food additives, solvents, and drug intermediates, as well as new bio-fuels [5,6].…”