Catalytic Synthesis of Energy‐rich Fuel Additive Levulinate Esters from Levulinic Acid using Modified Ultra‐stable Zeolite Y

Abstract In the present investigation, the esterification reaction of levulinic acid with ethanol was performed using sulfuric acid‐modified zeolite Y catalyst to synthesize ethyl levulinate. Characterization of zeolite catalysts was performed using SEM‐EDS, XRD, and FTIR techniques. The experiments were performed to find the optimum reaction parameters to obtain the maximum yield of 96 % of the product, levulinate ester by varying catalyst concentration (2–12 wt %), levulinic acid to ethanol mole ratio (1 : 1 to 1 : 13), reaction temperature (40 °C–100 °C). The esterification of levulinic acid with ethanol followed pseudo‐first‐order reaction kinetics. The activation energy for this reaction was found to be 19.570 KJmol −1 .