Production of Levulinic Acid and Gamma-Valerolactone from Biomass-Derived Cellulose

New renewable sources of transportation fuel and commodity chemicals are needed to meet continuing demand. Biomass has tremendous potential as a renewable resource for the production of fuels and chemicals because it is inexpensive and readily available from crop residues and forests. Levulinic acid is a biomass-derived compound that can be obtained in high yields from a variety of waste cellulose-containing materials. It has been identified as a top biomass-derived chemical due to its ease of production for both five and six carbon sugars and its useful functional groups a ketone and a carboxylic acid. Levulinic acid is a platform chemical for forming other more valuable reactive chemicals such as GVL. However making fuels and chemicals from biomass is complicated by the need to separate and purify the intermediate platform molecules at high yields. Conventional approaches to making useful chemicals from biomass typically require very difficult and economically unfeasible separation and purification steps. UW–Madison researchers have developed a streamlined process for making and extracting levulinic acid from aqueous solutions. First levulinic acid is produced through the acid-catalyzed deconstruction of biomass in an aqueous solution. Then the levulinic acid is extracted from the aqueous solution using one or more alkylphenol solvents (see WARF reference number P110124US01). The levulinic acid can be separated from the solvent by distillation or another means or further processed e.g. by hydrogenation to yield derivatives such as GVL. Both levulinic acid and GVL are value-added platform compounds that find commercial use as intermediates or reactants in many industrially useful processes including the production of liquid transportation fuels. Technology Applications: Cost-effective production of levulinic acid and sulfur-free GVL from biomass