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Industrial Applications for Levulinic Acid

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Cereals

Abstract

Levulinic acid has been produced since 1870. Over the years the basic chemistry and properties have been studied extensively. Though levulinic acid has significant potential as an industrial chemical, it has never reached commercial use in any significant volume. A reason for non-commercialization of this chemical may be that most of the research was done in early 40’s, when the raw materials were expensive, yield was low, and equipment for separation and purification was lacking. Today, overproduction of raw materials and developments in science and technology have opened doors to reevaluate industrial potential of a forgotten chemical giant, levulinic acid. Levulinic acid can be produced by high temperature acid hydrolysis of carbohydrates, such as glucose, galactose, sucrose, fructose, chitose and also from biomeric material such as wood, starch and agricultural wastes. Isolation of levulinic acid can be accomplished either by partial neutralization, filtration of humin material and vacuum steam distillation, or by solvent extraction. Levulinic acid is a highly versatile chemical with several industrial uses. Literature shows potential uses as resin, plasticizer, textile, animal feed, coating, and as an antifreeze. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, efforts are being made to prepare levulinic acid using an extruder as a continuous reactor and possible use as an antifreeze ingredient. This antifreeze will have definite advantages over ethylene glycol. It will be non-toxic and easily digestable by microorganisms. The antifreeze ingredient will be in solid form, hence it will be marketed more readily than liquid forms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Industrial Agricultural Product Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68503-0730, USA

    Viswas Ghorpade & Milford Hanna

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  1. Viswas Ghorpade
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  2. Milford Hanna
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, UK

    Grant M. Campbell , Colin Webb  & Stephen L. McKee ,  & 

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ghorpade, V., Hanna, M. (1997). Industrial Applications for Levulinic Acid. In: Campbell, G.M., Webb, C., McKee, S.L. (eds) Cereals. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2675-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2675-6_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3274-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2675-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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