| Summary: | Ethyl levulinate (EL) is a biomass-derived fuel additive that enhances fuel flow properties and promotes cleaner emissions, contributing to climate change mitigation. This study presents a novel investigation into the thermokinetics of direct cellulose conversion to EL using Brønsted-Lewis acidic ionic liquid (BLAIL), a catalytic system that has received limited attention in this context. Reactions were conducted at 170–190 ◦C for 1–6 h, with BLAIL demonstrating superior catalytic performance. BLAIL yielded 30.79 mol% EL, the highest EL yield reported to date for direct cellulose conversion using BLAIL, significantly outperforming Brønsted acidic ionic liquid (BAIL), which yielded 15.60 mol% under conditions (190 ◦C, 6 h, 0.6 g cellulose, 2 g ionic liquid, 25 mL ethanol). Kinetic analysis revealed that both BAIL and BLAIL systems follow a pseudo-homogeneous first-order model (R² > 0.95). BLAIL reduced the activation energy to 114.94 kJ/mol, compared to BAIL (146.1 kJ/mol), indicating enhanced catalytic efficiency. Thermodynamic parameters for the BLAIL catalysed reaction (ΔH‡ = 111.17 kJ/ mol, ΔS‡ = − 92.44 J/ mol⋅K, ΔG‡ = 153.06 kJ/ mol) suggest the process is endothermic, more ordered, and endergonic. These findings provide new insights into the role of dual acidity in BLAIL for improving EL yield and for upscaling sustainable EL production from lignocellulosic biomass.
|
|---|