A1 Journal article (refereed)
Brønsted and Lewis acid catalyzed conversion of pulp industry waste biomass to levulinic acid (2019)

Lappalainen, K., Kuorikoski, E., Vanvyve, E., Dong, Y., Kärkkäinen, J., Niemelä, M., & Lassi, U. (2019). Brønsted and Lewis acid catalyzed conversion of pulp industry waste biomass to levulinic acid. Bioresources, 14(3), 7025-7040. https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/bronsted-and-lewis-acid-catalyzed-conversion-of-pulp-industry-waste-biomass-to-levulinic-acid/

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Lappalainen, Katja; Kuorikoski, Eveliina; Vanvyve, Elise; Dong, Yue; Kärkkäinen, Johanna; Niemelä, Matti; Lassi, Ulla

Journal or series: Bioresources

eISSN: 1930-2126

Publication year: 2019

Volume: 14

Issue number: 3

Pages range: 7025-7040

Publisher: Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/bronsted-and-lewis-acid-catalyzed-conversion-of-pulp-industry-waste-biomass-to-levulinic-acid/

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/65338

Abstract

Enormous amounts of fiber sludge are generated annually by the pulp industry as a by-product. As a cellulose-rich material, its current usage, mainly as fuel, is inefficient from a material efficiency point of view. This work studied the utilization of fiber sludge from a Finnish and a Swedish pulp mill as a potential feedstock to produce levulinic acid, a valuable platform chemical. The conversion experiments of fiber sludge to levulinic acid were performed in a microwave reactor with a mixture of H2SO4 and Lewis acid as the catalyst. The reaction conditions, which included reaction time and temperature as well as the H2SO4 and Lewis acid concentrations, were studied in detail. The highest levulinic acid yield, 56%, was obtained with Swedish fiber sludge after 60 min at 180 °C with the H2SO4 concentration of 0.3 mol/L and a CrCl3 concentration of 7.5 mmol/L which indicated that the fiber sludge had the potential to be used as feedstock for levulinic acid production.

Keywords: biomass (industry); pulping; sludge; utilisation; organic compounds; acids; irradiation; catalysis

Free keywords: fiber sludge; levulinic acid; microwave irradiation; catalytic conversion; Brønsted acid; Lewis acid

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2019

JUFO rating: 1