A Novel SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 Composite Catalyst for Conversion of Furfuryl Alcohol to Ethyl Levulinate

A novel SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was prepared and its activity was evaluated for the conversion of furfuryl alcohol (FA) to ethyl levulinate (EL) through liquid phase alcoholysis. The activity of SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was compared with various treated zeolite materials such as H-ZSM-5, desilicated H-ZSM-5, meso-HZSM-5 wherein, SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 was found to be the highly selective and tangible catalyst. The outcomes of various operating parameters were also checked and optimized using Taguchi method in an autoclave reactor. A high yield of ethyl levulinate (89%) was achieved under optimized reaction conditions, i.e., temperature 110 degrees C, reaction time 5 h, catalyst dosages 0.8 g, and FA concentration 0.5 M. The catalyst recovered through separation and calcination was reused four times and found to be reasonably good with 48% yield of EL. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

A novel SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was prepared and found to be highly selective and tangible for the conversion of furfuryl alcohol to ethyl levulinate. The reaction conditions were optimized using the Taguchi method, resulting in a high yield of ethyl levulinate.