Preliminary Study of Alkyl Levulinate Synthesis using Aliphatic Primary Alcohols Catalyzed by Zinc Oxide

Preliminary Study of Alkyl Levulinate Synthesis using Aliphatic Primary Alcohols Catalyzed by Zinc Oxide Научная публикация

Журнал

Kinetics and Catalysis
ISSN: 0023-1584 , E-ISSN: 1608-3210

Вых. Данные

Год: 2025, DOI: 10.1134/s0023158424601402

Авторы

de Andrade Bezerra Jéssyca Kaenny ¹ , Lavoie Jean-Michel ² , Ghislain Thierry ² , Duarte Lindemberg de Jesus Nogueira ³ , de Barros Neto Eduardo Lins ¹

Организации

1	Chemical Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), RN, Campus Universitário, Av. Senador Salgado Filho 3000 Natal-RN, 59072-970 Brazil
2	Department of Chemical and Biotechnological Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), QC, Department of Chemical and Biotechnological Engineering, 2500, boul de l’université, Sherbrooke (Québec) J1K 2R1, 819 821-8000 Canada
3	Department of Petroleum Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), RN, Campus Universitário, Av. Senador Salgado Filho 3000 Natal-RN, 59072-970 Brazil

The utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of energy, biofuels, and chemical products has become increasingly viable from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives, particularly when the biomass is sourced from agricultural waste. The conversion of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) into biofuel alkyl levulinate (AL) using alcohols as the alkoxy group (R–O) donor and reaction medium represents a promising synthesis route for AL, which is regarded as an environmentally friendly chemical product. In this study, we investigated the synthesis of alkyl levulinate from linear-chain alcohols (R–OH: 1-butanol, 1-octanol, 1-decanol, 1-dodecanol, and 1-tetradecanol) catalyzed by zinc oxide (ZnO) under the following conditions: LA : ROH molar ratio of 1 : 1, 1 wt % ZnO, temperature of 125°C, and reaction duration of 3 h. Our findings indicate that under the studied reaction conditions, the conversion of LA gradually decreases as the alcohol chain lengthens. The ester yields (%) were as follows: butyl levulinate—100, octyl levulinate—80, decyl levulinate—72, dodecyl levulinate—69 and tetradecyl levulinate—64. This trend is directly related to the physicochemical properties of the synthesized levulinates, including boiling point, polarity, and miscibility.

de Andrade Bezerra J.K. , Lavoie J-M. , Ghislain T. , Duarte L.d.J.N. , de Barros Neto E.L.
Preliminary Study of Alkyl Levulinate Synthesis using Aliphatic Primary Alcohols Catalyzed by Zinc Oxide
Kinetics and Catalysis. 2025. DOI: 10.1134/s0023158424601402 WOS Scopus CAPlus

Web of science:	WOS:001538627200001
Scopus:	2-s2.0-105012182638
Chemical Abstracts:	2025:1820224