GREEN CHEMISTRY and Sustainability

Abstract:  The full exploitation of non-food biomass sources represents a fundamental step to pursue the transition from a linear economy to a circular and more sustainable one. One of the most promising platform chemicals derived from lignocellulose is levulinic acid (LA). The US Department of Energy and LBNet (Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Network) consider LA to be one of the ‘Top 10’ chemicals. LA and its esters (LE) can be obtained by hydrolysis/alcoholysis of cellulose in the presence of acid catalysts. In 2019 the global LA market was of $27.2 million and it is expected to reach $60.2 million by 2030. From LA/LE a wide variety of products can be obtained. LEVANTE aims to further the state-of-art in LA/LE valorization to produce fully renewable value-added products (i.e. ketals, DPA, GVL and consecutive reduction products) through the design of multifunctional heterogenous catalysts.

Activity: 2022-2024