One pot conversion of glucose to ethyl levulinate over a porous hydrothermal acid catalyst in green solvents

Abstract

One-pot conversion of glucose to ethyl levulinate over an acid-functionalised hydrothermal carbon gives high initial yields up to 37 mol% (comparable to H2SO4) with catalyst performance strongly influenced by green solvent choice.

An alumina‐coated UiO‐66 nanocrystalline solid superacid with high acid density as a catalyst for ethyl levulinate synthesis

“…After 2 h of reaction at 200 °C, the EL yield was 23.5 mol%. HTC‐400‐S had strong catalytic activity, and an EL yield of 37 mol% was obtained from a reaction performed at 200 °C for 6 h 80 . In our work, the EL yield obtained using SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 @Al 2 O 3 ‐3M at 200 °C after 5 h was 37.5 mol%.…”

“…The catalytic performance of SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 @Al 2 O 3 is compared to those reported for hyper‐crosslinked polymer‐based carbonaceous materials, a hybrid zirconia zeolite, H‐ZSM‐5‐supported phosphotungstic acid (HPW/H‐ZSM‐5), SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 grafted SBA‐15 type double acid solid acid catalyst (SZ/SBA‐15), SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 –Al 2 O 3 and sulfonated hydrothermal carbon (HTC‐400‐S) in Table 2 16, 17, 21, 75, 79, 80 . The hyper‐crosslinked polymer‐based carbonaceous materials and hybrid zirconia zeolite were weak catalysts, and the EL yields obtained with the catalysts were 25 mol% (170 °C, 8 h) and 21 mol% (230 °C, 6 h), respectively 16, 17 .…”

“…78 The catalytic performance of SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 @Al 2 O 3 is compared to those reported for hyper-crosslinked polymer-based carbonaceous materials, a hybrid zirconia zeolite, H-ZSM-5-supported phosphotungstic acid (HPW/H-ZSM-5), SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 grafted SBA-15 type double acid solid acid catalyst (SZ/SBA-15), SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 -Al 2 O 3 and sulfonated hydrothermal carbon (HTC-400-S) in Table 2. 16,17,21,75,79,80 The hyper-crosslinked polymer-based carbonaceous materials and hybrid zirconia zeolite were weak catalysts, and the EL yields obtained with the catalysts were 25 mol % (170°C, 8 h) and 21 mol% (230°C, 6 h), respectively. 16,17 HPW/H-ZSM-5 had strong B acid sites, and an EL yield of 19.1 mol% was obtained from a reaction performed at 160°C for 2 h. 75 SZ/SBA-15 had double acidity, and an EL yield of 30.7 mol% was obtained from a reaction performed at 140°C for 24 h. 21 Peng et al used ZrOCl 2 Á8H 2 O and AlCl 3 as raw materials, hydrolyzed them using ammonia and used the coprecipitation method to obtain Al-Zr-type hydroxide gel, which was calcined by sulfuric acid impregnation to prepare SO 4 2 − /ZrO 2 -Al 2 O 3 .…”

Contribution to the production and use of biomass-derived solvents – a review

“…The alternative use of chemical heterogeneous catalysts was reported, such as the commercial heteropolyacids, sulfated metal oxides, zeolite molecular sieves and hydrotalcite-like compounds [69], whose also present the disadvantage of high cost. Recently, Bosilj et al [98] reported the use of a cheaper biomass-derived catalyst in the conversion of glucose into ethyl levulinate (EL). In this study, an acid-functionalized hydrothermal catalyst derived from glucose was produced by hydrothermal carbonization of glucose that was first treated with sodium borate (borax) to generate carbon nanoparticle size and, then, it was sulfonated with H2SO4.…”

Hard carbon microspheres with bimodal size distribution and hierarchical porosity via hydrothermal carbonization of trehalose

“…HTC of saccharides is known to produce microspherical hydrochar. 4 Numerous saccharides, such as glucose, 5,6 sucrose, 7 cyclodextrin, 8 fructose, 9 xylose, 10 cellulose, 11 agarose 12 and starch, 13 have been shown to result in microspheres (MS) with mostly Gaussian size distributions. The underlying chemical mechanisms during HTC of saccharides include dehydration, condensation, polymerization, and aromatization.…”