Synthesis of hexyl levulinate as a potential fuel additive from levulinic acid over a solid acid catalyst

MM Tabrizi, AN Chermahini, Z Mohammadbagheri, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 7 (5), 103420, 2019

hexyl levulinate (HL) as a potential fuel additive was synthesized by catalytic esterification of levulinic acid (LA) with hexanol using SBA-15-Pr-SO₃H as an efficient solid acid catalyst for the first time. FT-IR, N₂ adsorption/desorption, TGA, SEM and TEM methods were used to characterize the SBA-15-Pr-SO₃H catalyst and the results confirmed the successful modification of SBA-15 surface. The reaction conditions were optimized and 0.17 g of the catalyst, 140 °C for the reaction temperature, 8 h for the reaction time, and LA to hexanol molar ratio of 1:3 were selected to obtain the maximum yield of HL. The results showed that the SBA-15-Pr-SO₃H catalyst had the excellent catalytic performance for esterification of LA and HL was synthesized with 94% yield of HL and 100% conversion of LA under optimum reaction conditions. Also, the reusability tests showed that the SBA-15-Pr-SO₃H catalyst was stable and can be reused four times.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213343719305433