Schmidt, LisaLisaSchmidtMthembu, Lethiwe D.Lethiwe D.MthembuReddy, PrashantPrashantReddyDeenadayalu, NirmalaNirmalaDeenadayaluKaltschmitt, MartinMartinKaltschmittSmirnova, IrinaIrinaSmirnova2019-08-202019-08-202017-02-10Industrial Crops and Products (99): 172-178 (2017-05-01)http://hdl.handle.net/11420/3142Levulinic acid (LA) is a promising platform chemical that can be produced from C6-sugars of lignocellulose. However, direct conversion of lignocellulose leads to the predefined by-products furfural and a solid residue, composed of lignin and humins. Enabling independent conversion of the major biomass components would increase the flexibility in terms of the products of a biorefinery. Therefore, this work focuses on integrating LA production into a biorefinery, which fractionates the biomass with a thermal-enzymatic treatment using hot water and enzymes only. Besides a glucose solution, used for LA production, a hemicellulose rich hydrolysate and solvent free lignin were recovered. The yields for the C6-fractions after thermal and enzymatic treatment were 95.8 mol% and 62.1 mol%, respectively. The influence of temperature (160–200 °C), residence time (3–90 min) and acid concentration (0.25–1 M) on LA synthesis, following thermal-enzymatic treatment was investigated by statistical methods, achieving a maximum LA yield of 67.7 mol%.en0926-66902017172178ElsevierLevulinic acidSugarcane bagasseLiquid hot water treatmentPelletizingMethane sulfonic acidTechnikIngenieurwissenschaftenJournal Article10.1016/j.indcrop.2017.02.010Other