Surface modified mesoporous KIT-5: A catalytic approach to obtain butyl levulinate from starch

Biomass is the only renewable organic material that has high energy content. Due to the significant amount of biomass resources, especially crop residues, the valorization of biomass to fuel or fuel additives have received more attention. In the present paper, biomass-derived butyl levulinate was prepared from starch in the presence of Al-modified mesoporous KIT-5 silica to improve its catalytic activity. Accordingly, the acidity character of KIT-5 was improved by two methods: wetness impregnation and in situ incorporation of aluminum. The essential properties of these catalysts were characterized by different techniques including N2 adsorption-desorption analysis, ICP-OES, FT-IR, and Pyridine-FT-IR analyses, XRD, SEM, TEM. A series of important parameters influencing the reaction yield was thoroughly investigated. Under the optimized conditions (230 °C, 10 h, 30 mg catalyst, and 70 mg starch), 31% n-butyl levulinate yield and 74% starch conversion were obtained, respectively. Finally, the selected catalyst was regenerated and reused in starch valorization reaction for four successive runs.