ABSTRACT
Furfural and acetic acid are produced with approximately 60 and 90â mol % yield, respectively, upon stripping bagasse with a gaseous stream of HCl/steam and condensing the effluent to water/furfural/acetic acid. The reaction kinetics is 1(st) â order in furfural and 0.5(th) â order in HCl. A process concept with full recycling of the reaction effluents is proposed to reduce the energy demand to <10â tonsteam tonfurfural (-1) and facilitate the product recovery through a simple liquid/liquid separation of the condensate into a water-rich and a furfural-rich phase.
Subject(s)
Furaldehyde/chemistry , Hydrochloric Acid/chemistry , Lignin/chemistry , Acetic Acid/chemistry , Kinetics , Water/chemistryABSTRACT
Furfural, a potential coproduct of levulinic acid, can be converted into levulinic acid via hydrogenation to furfuryl alcohol and subsequent ethanolysis to ethyl levulinate. The ethanolysis reaction is known to proceed in the presence of H(2)SO(4). We show here that several strongly acidic resins are comparably effective catalysts for this reaction. Optimal performance is achieved by balancing the number of acid sites with their accessibility in the resin. Acidic zeolites such as H-ZSM-5 also catalyze this reaction, although with a lower activity and a higher co-production of diethyl ether.
Subject(s)
Furans/chemistry , Ion Exchange Resins/chemistry , Levulinic Acids/chemistry , Polymers/chemistry , Sulfuric Acids/chemistry , Zeolites/chemistry , Catalysis , Hydrogen-Ion ConcentrationABSTRACT
Methyl pentenoate, a promising Nylon intermediate, is produced in >95% yield via the transesterification of gamma-valerolactone, a bio-based intermediate, under catalytic distillation conditions.
