Refinery Technology for Cellulosic Biomass by Chemical Approach

Abstract

Cellulose is the largest inedible biomass resource on earth. To convert cellulose into a series of useful chemicals, we have developed catalytic reactions to convert cellulose into methyl levulinate and methyl lactate. Although both are multi-step reactions, these reactions proceeded efficiently by developing optimal catalysts for each of the elementary reactions and enabling them to work cooperatively. The combination of Brønsted acid and Lewis acid worked well for the synthesis of methyl levulinic acid, while the combination of different kinds of Lewis acids worked well for the synthesis of methyl lactate. Both levulinic acid and lactic acid have high potential in biomass refineries, and recent reactions to convert them to succinic acid, butene, BTX (benzene, toluene, and xylene), pentenoic acid and acrylic acid were reviewed.