A novel sulfonated solid acid catalyst for efficient conversion of furfuryl alcohol to n-butyl levulinate fuel bioadditive

Furfuryl alcohol (FOL), as a cheap green biomass derivative, has high potential application value in the production of various biomass chemicals. In this work, a sulfonic acid functional porous organic polymer-coated carbon nanotubes catalyst (CNTs@PDVTA-SO3H) was successfully prepared. The structure of as-prepared catalysts was confirmed by TG/DTG, Raman spectra, TEM, FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, and XPS measurements. The catalytic properties of CNTs@PDVTA-SO3H were evaluated for the synthesis of n-butyl levulinate (BL) via the alcoholysis of FOL. It was found that the 99.1 % yield of BL was achieved under optimal conditions. The apparent activation energy of FOL to 2-bufurdoxy methyl-furan (BMF) and BMF to BL was 58.08 kJ/mol and 35.38 kJ/mol, respectively. This work provides a new avenue for the preparation of alkyl levulinates using FOL as raw material.