Decomposition Kinetics Of Fructose Catalyzed By Organic Acids In High Temperature Liquid Water

Levulinic acid is regarded recently as a new platform chemical because it can be prepared from biomass with large scale, high yield and low cost, and it has high reactive ability. Through salification, esterification, hydrogenation, condensation, oxidation and halogenation etc., levulinic acid can produce useful chemicals and new polymer materials. As a part of " Study on efficient and environmentally friendly methods for preparation of levulinic acid", in this paper, a continuous reaction 'fructose→5- hydroxymethyl furfural→levulinic acid' was studied. Decomposition kinetics of fructose catalyzed by organic acids (formic acid, acetic acid, levulinic acid) in high temperature liquid water was studied; Decomposition kinetics of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural catalyzed by organic acids (no catalyst, formic acid, acetic acid) in high temperature liquid water was studied; in addition, the stability of LA in high temperature liquid water was studied.Decomposition Kinetics of Fructose Catalyzed by Organic Acids in High Temperature Liquid Water was studied at temperatures from 453.15K to 493.15K and pressure of 1 OMPa. From the results, we could see that the reaction was sped up with organic acids, especially formic acid. The effects of temperature, organic acids and residence time on the yields of 5-hydromethylfurfural and levulinic acid were shown. Fructose decomposition consists of sequential two reactions, first from fructose to 5-hydromethylfurfural, then from 5-hydromethylfurfural to levulinic acid. From the products profile, we could conclude that acetic acid sped up the fist step, but had little influence on the second step while both steps were sped up by formic acid.Decomposition Kinetics of 5-hydromethylfurfural Catalyzed by Organic Acids in High Temperature Liquid Water was studied at temperatures from 453 .15K to 493.15K and pressure of 10MPa. From the results, we could see that the reaction was sped up with organic acids, the order is, formic acid> acetic acid> no catalyst. Theeffects of temperature, organic acids and residence time on the conversion of 5-hydromethylfurfural and the yield of levulinic acid were shown.Stability of LA in high temperature liquid water was studied for temperature from 533.15K to 573.15K and pressure at 10MPa. The results showed that LA is stable in the first hour in HTLW. With the increasing time the conversion of LA can reach to about 35% after 20 hours at 573.15K.The researches showed that the reaction 'fructose→5- hydroxymethyl furfural→ levulinic acid' was sped up with organic acids, especially formic acid. With the adding of organic acids in high temperature liquid water, LA, a platform chemical, can be prepared from biomass with low cost, large scale and environment-friendly. Now study on kinetics and mechanism of biomass decomposition in HTLW has been done, and a lot of researches should be done to prepare LA efficiently and greenly.