Esterification of renewable levulinic acid to levulinate esters using amberlyst-15 as a solid acid catalyst

Abstract

Levulinic acid (LA) is a versatile biomass-derived building block as it can be used for the synthesis of organic chemicals as alternative to the depleting fossil fuel resources. Levulinate esters, obtained from catalytic esterification of LA with alcohol, can be used in many applications such as fragrance and fuel additives. In this study, ion-exchange resins Amberlyst-15 was employed as solid acid catalyst for esterification of LA with methanol for methyl levulinate (ML) production. The effect of reaction time, catalyst loading, and molar ratio of LA to methanol, was investigated on LA esterification to ML at the reflux condition. The optimum ML yield of 82% was obtained from reaction conducted at reflux temperature for 5h, using 30% of Amberlyst-15 loading, and 1:20 of LA to methanol molar ratio. The reusability of Amberlyst-15 for ML production was examined for five successive reactions. In addition, Amberlyst-15 catalyst, employed in the esterification of LA with ethanol and 1-butanol for ethyl levulinate (EL) and butyl levulinate (BL), respectively, registered good performance. Yields of 71% and 55% have been obtained for EL and BL, respectively. Amberlyst-15 is a promising solid acid catalyst for production of biomass derived levulinate esters at mild process conditions.