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Concentrated Levulinic Acid Production from Sugar Cane Molasses
journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-30, 00:00 authored by Shimin Kang, Jinxia Fu, Naifu Zhou, Ribo Liu, Zhezhe Peng, Yongjun XuLevulinic
acid (LA) is generally produced from biomass through
acid hydrolysis and has been recognized as one of the top platform
chemicals. In this study, concentrated LA was produced from sugar
cane molasses through a superimposed reaction, in which the LA solution
generated from hexose hydrolysis was further used as solvent for hydrolysis
of sugar cane molasses to produce concentrated LA. After the third
and fifth superimposed reactions, LA solutions with concentrations
of 148 and 180 g/L were obtained, with average yields of 30.5 and
23.9%, respectively. The LA yield, however, is comparably low as a
result of the increase of the LA concentration, and the superimposed
reaction conditions promote the formation of aqueous and solid byproducts.