Intensified Synthesis of Levulinic Acid from Fructose\nover Solid Acid Catalysts in Micropacked Bed Reactors

The\nefficient production of levulinic acid (LA) from biomass fructose\nwas achieved in micropacked bed reactors (μPBRs) over HND-580.\nBased on the residence time distribution (RTD) experiment, it was\ndetermined that the flow behavior of the single liquid phase flow\nin μPBRs was close to plug flow with the dimensionless axial\ndispersion number of 0.0083–0.0352. The mean residence time\nis 31.4–968.3 s under the experimental range; 98.2% fructose\nconversion and 74.9% LA yield were obtained within 454.2 s at 150\n°C, 0.1 mL/min, and 2.0 MPa. Under the same conditions, 100%\nconversion and 98.3% LA yield were obtained by selecting HMF as substrate.\nThe space-time yield (STY) of LA in μPBRs was 1–2 orders\nof magnitude larger than that of conventional batch reactors. Also,\na kinetic model was established to predict the fructose conversion\nrate and LA yield, and the fitting degree with the experimental value\nwas 0.978.