Directional Catalytic Conversion of Biomass Carbohydrates into High Added‐value Levulinates with Bifunctionalized Metal‐supported Carbon‐based Catalyst

Abstract Carbon solid acid catalysts play a very important role in the high value‐added utilization of biomass and its derivatives. A series of carbon‐based solid acids catalysts were prepared by high‐temperature carbonization, hydrothermal sulfonation and metal impregnation using cellulose as the carbon source. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, Raman, SEM‐EDX, BET, FT‐IR, XPS, ICP‐OES and the total acid density of the catalyst was tested by acid‐base titration. The experimental and characterization results showed that the large pore size, suitable specific surface area and acid density were the main reasons for the good catalytic performance of the catalyst 300‐AC‐Cr‐SO 3 H. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the conversion of glucose was 99.6 % and the yield of the products methyl levulinate and levulinic acid was 43.1 %. The study of the intermediates revealed that glucose is preferentially converted to methyl glucoside in methanol solution. In addition, the catalyst maintains good stability after three cycles.