Technology for production of levulinic acid as new platform chemical from wheat straw

Levulinic acid is a kind of new platform chemicals. This study proposed a method for making levulinic acid using abundant wheat straw. The effects of technological conditions of different temperatures, sulfuric acid concentration, particle size, liquid/solid ratio and reaction time on levulinic acid yield were investigated, respectively. The result shows that the optimal conditions are temperature 210～230℃, sulfuric acid concentration 3%, liquid/solid ratio 15∶1, reaction time 30 min. Under the optimal conditions, the levulinic acid yield can reach 19.2%. Particle size has little effect on levulinic acid yield in the experiment.