Development of heterogeneous catalysts for levulinic acid production

Abstract

This work takes part in a bigger project regarding the use of biomasses as starting material for Bio-Based Chemicals Building Blocks’ (BCBBs) production. Particularly this thesis focuses on the hydrolysis reaction of glucose, the main constituent of lignocellulosic biomasses, in order to obtain levulinic acid, one of the most promising industrial molecule. The aim of the work is the development of acidic and stable heterogeneous catalysts, active and selective towards levulinic acid. Mesostructured SBA-15 support has been modified with different molar amounts of Ti, using two different synthetic ways. The effect of Ti inside the silica network has been taken into account. Moreover, to increase the acidity of the material, the best catalytic support has been modified with a strong acidic function via grafting of an organic molecule ((3-Mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane). Hydrothermal and mechanical properties of the materials have been investigated; all the samples have been characterized by different techniques (N2 physisorption XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman analysis, TEM, TG-DTA and TPO) and they have been tested for the hydrolysis of glucose in a stainless still in batch reactor. While great improvement of the SBA-15 stability properties has been achieved by the introduction of Ti in the mesostructured silica, the best reaction results have been found using the acid activated catalyst.