Sulfonated porous biomass-derived carbon with superior recyclability for synthesizing ethyl levulinate biofuel
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Sulfonated porous biomass‑derived carbon with superior recyclability for synthesizing ethyl levulinate biofuel Xiao‑Li Zhang1 · Ning Li1 · Zao Qin1 · Xiu‑Cheng Zheng1 Received: 31 July 2020 / Accepted: 31 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The synthesis of ethyl levulinate (EL) via esterification of levulinic acid (LA) with ethanol, which can be derived from biomass, has become an attractive topic since EL can be applied in many fields, such as fuel additives for petroleum and biodiesel, food additives and fragrance. Herein, the sulfonated porous carbon catalysts derived from the rinds of corn stalk biomass wastes were prepared by using sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid as the sulfonating agent and activator, respectively. The preparation parameters were optimized based on the catalytic activity for LA esterification with ethanol and the acid density of the corresponding catalysts. Also, various reaction factors were optimized to improve the catalytic efficiency over the optimal sulfonated corn stalk-derived carbon (s-CSC). Under the conditions of reaction temperature 80 °C, catalyst dosage 5 wt%, ethanol-to-LA molar ratio 5.0:1 and reaction time 8 h, the LA conversion reached 94% and 93% catalyzed by s-CSC and the optimal porous catalyst (s-p-CSC), respectively. Noticeably, benefitting from the hierarchical porous structure with large surface area, s-p-CSC exhibited much better recyclability than s-CSC. This work offers a highly effective solid acid catalyst for the synthesis of biofuel. Keywords Corn stalk biomass · Sulfonated carbon · Hierarchical porous structure · Esterification · Ethyl levulinate · Biofuel
Introduction With the fast increase in urbanization and industrialization over the world, especially in China, energy is in high demand, which, in turn, leads to serious environmental pollution. Thus, it is necessary to develop practicable energy that could replace * Zao Qin [email protected] * Xiu‑Cheng Zheng [email protected] 1
College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
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the traditional petroleum-based fuels [1, 2]. Among various renewable energies, biomass-based energy such as biodiesel is receiving much attention because of its unique characteristics including non-toxicity, low greenhouse gas emission, sustainability, biodegradability, etc. [3–7]. Notably, when used as fuel additive, ethyl levulinate (EL) may be added up to 5 wt% for the regular diesel engines to increase their lubricity, heat conductivity and ability of reducing particulate emissions [8]. Apart from this, EL also can be used in the fields of food additive and fragrance. In other words, the production of EL has a huge application market with obvious economic and social benefits. Usually, EL is prepared with the esterification of levulinic acid (LA) with ethanol, which is an attractive green production process since both LA and ethanol can be obtained from renewable biomass. The reaction can be catalyzed not only by the soluble homogeneous acid c
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