(85f) Conversion of Food Waste to Levulinic Acid Using a Catalytic Membranemembrane Reactor

One-pot conversion of biomass to levulinic acid (LA), a promising platform chemical of bio-refinery, is an important technology for biomass conversion. Multiple biomass waste materials such as agriculture residues, forest residues and food wastes have been considered as promising feedstocks for bioprocessing and bio-refinery. Here, cellulose as well as food wastes from vegetables and other starch-based food materials have been investigated for their conversion to levulinic acid using a unique solid acid catalyst immobilized on a membrane substrate. Our reusable membrane catalyts is superior to the corrosive homogeneous acid or toxic metal-based catalyst. In addition, the membrane substrate enables the immediate separation of the levulinic acid from the rest of the feed stream driving the reaction to completion and improving the yield. Finally, hot water extraction as a pre-processing step was found to be effective in removing some of the proteins and other soluble carbohydrate. A levulinic acid yield of over 80% has been achieved for cellulose. For starch-based food waste such as rice and noodles, over 90% of levulinic acid yield was obtained. For the more recalcitrant cellulosic vegetables, up to 50% of levulinic acid yield has also been achieved indicating the promising potential of our technology for food waste utilization.