@article {47150, title = {Highly active Br{\o}nsted acidic silicon phosphate catalyst for direct conversion of glucose to levulinic acid in MIBK{\textendash}water biphasic system}, journal = {SN Applied Sciences}, volume = {2}, year = {2020}, month = {JAN}, pages = {Article number: 51}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Due to depletion of fossil fuel reserves and environmental concerns demand the utilization of other renewable feedstocks such as biomass which is available abundantly in different quantities throughout the world. Catalytic transformation of this biomass or biomass-derived products such as glucose to valuable platform biochemicals viz: levulinic acid (LA) is academically as well as industrially important reaction. In the present work, Silicon phosphates (SixPO4) catalysts viz: Si10PO4, Si20PO4, Si30PO4, and Si40PO4 having solely Br{\o}nsted acidic properties were prepared by wet impregnation of H3PO4 (10{\textendash}40\ wt\%) on fumed silica followed by calcination at 550\ {\textdegree}C for 10\ h. The prepared catalysts were characterized by various techniques such as XRD; NH3-TPD; FTIR etc. Formation of silicon phosphate structure was found to depend on \% of P loading and its interaction with silica. The acidic property of SixPO4 catalyst was characterized by NH3-TPD and Pyridine-IR, confirmed that catalyst has exclusively strong Br{\o}nsted acidity. A high LA yield of 81\ mol\% over Si30PO4 has achieved at an optimized reaction condition of 140\ {\textdegree}C; 10\ h in MIBK{\textendash}water (9:1) biphasic system.

}, doi = {10.1007/s42452-019-1827-z}, author = {Bokade, Vijay and Moondra, Hitakshi and Niphadkar, Prashant} } @article {46676, title = {Highly efficient micro-meso acidic H-USY catalyst for one step conversion of wheat straw to ethyl levulinate (biofuel additive)}, journal = {Microporous and Mesoporous Materials}, volume = {306}, year = {2020}, month = {OCT}, pages = {110474}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Ethyl Levulinate (EL), biofuel additive can blend up to 20\% with biodiesel to improve its fuel properties. Till the date, there are reports on homogeneous catalysts (H2SO4, ionic liquid) for synthesis of EL from raw biomass like wheat straw. To best of our knowledge, there is no single report on heterogeneous catalyst for one step synthesis of EL directly from wheat straw. This work is a successful attempt to use heterogeneous micro-meso acidic H-USY (post dealumination and desilication) for direct one step conversion of wheat straw to EL with higher EL yield 24.5 wt\%, which is probably the highest so far.

}, keywords = {Acidity, ethyl levulinate, H-USY, Micro-meso, Wheat straw}, issn = {1387-1811}, doi = {10.1016/j.micromeso.2020.110474}, author = {Heda, Jidnyasa and Niphadkar, Prashant and Mudliar, Sandeep and Bokade, Vijay} } @article {48354, title = {Hierarchical TS-1 for epoxidation of non-edible Karanja (Millettia pinnata) oil methyl ester to methyl epoxioleate (biodiesel additive) in presence of H2O2 as oxidizing agent}, journal = {Environmental Progress \& Sustainable Energy}, volume = {41}, year = {2022}, month = {MAY}, pages = {e13766}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Application of non-edible Karanja (Millettia pinnata) oil which is abundantly available in India is not explored so far. The present study is an attempt to convert fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) obtained from Karanja oil to methyl epoxioleate over hierarchical titanosilicate (TS-1) catalyst. Methyl epoxioleate, a biodiesel additive can blend up to 20\% with biodiesels to improve oxidative stability and cold flow properties of biodiesel. A series of hierarchical TS-1 were prepared by desilication of parent TS-1 with 0.1 N NaOH at 80 degrees C for 1, 3, 5, and 7 h, respectively. Samples were characterized by powder XRD, low temperature nitrogen adsorption/desorption, and TEM. Eighty percent FAME conversion with 70\% yield of methyl epoxioleate was obtained over 5H-TS-1 catalyst. The enhanced catalytic activity of a 5H-TS-1 compared to parent TS-1 mainly attributed to the high mesoporosity coupled with well-preserved crystallinity. 5H-TS-1 catalyst was found to be completely reusable after calcination at 500 degrees C for 12 h. Hierarchical 5H-TS-1 catalyst for effective conversion of non-edible Karanja oil methyl ester to methyl epoxioleate probably not reported so far.

}, keywords = {H2O2, hierarchical TS-1, Karanja oil methyl ester, methyl epoxioleate, TS-1}, issn = {1944-7442}, doi = {10.1002/ep.13766}, author = {Anil, Reshma and Niphadkar, Prashant and Bokade, Vijay} }