Sodium Hydrosulfate as the Catalyst for Carbohydrate Conversion into the Levulinic Acid and 5-Hydroxymetylfurfural Derivatives

Abstract

The new regenerable catalyst H2SO4 + Na2SO4 for the levulinic acid production has been developed. The catalyst provides product extraction from the reaction mass with n-butanol during the reaction. The acid-catalyzed dehydration process of fructose and sucrose in three systems (homogeneous water solution, homogeneous butanol solution and two-phase system water-butanol) has been studied and compared. The ester of levulinic acid and ether of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde were found to be the main products in the presence of butanol, and their total yield is of maximum in the two-phase system. It attains 83 – 90 mol. %. The structure of 5-buthoxymethyl-2-furaldehyde was identified by PMR, NMR 13C spectroscopy and GC-MS analysis. The results obtained show that to increase the product yields one should separate the products from the catalyst and carbohydrate converted during the acid-catalyzed conversion.