Catalytic Transformation of Biomass-Derived Glucose by One-Pot Method into Levulinic Acid over Na-BEA Zeolite

Abstract

This article presents the results of the conversion of biomass-based glucose to levulinic acid (LA) with the use of Na-BEA commercial zeolite catalyst. For this purpose, synthetic zeolite BEA was used as a matrix. The glucose conversion process with the participation of Na-BEA zeolite allowed the following acids to be obtained: levulinic acid, lactic acid, pyruvic acid and formic acid. The highest yield of levulinic acid was achieved when processed for 1–5 h at 200–250◦ C with 0.1 g and 0.6 g of Na-BEA catalyst. We also compare the one-pot heterogeneous process with similar homogeneous process using H2 SO4 as catalyst.