STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF REACTIONS VARIABLES ON LEVULINIC ACID PRODUCTION USING TAGUCHI METHOD OF DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT

Authors

  • Abubakar H Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, Katsina
  • Lawal G. Hassan Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto-Nigeria
  • Abdullahi M. Sokoto Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto-Nigeria
  • Misbahu L. Mohammed Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto-Nigeria.
  • Valentine C. E. Okoh Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto Nigeria

Keywords:

Levulinic acid, Taguchi, Factorial design, Reaction variables

Abstract

The study on the effects of reactions variables on levulinic acid production was carried out using Taguchi method of design of experiment. The production of LA was carried out in a 50 cm3 Teflon lined stainless steel batch reactor and extracted from the aqueous mixture using ethyl acetate. The production process was optimized using a Taguchi method of design of experiment, with optimum yield of 74.54 % at reaction variables of a temperature of 180 °C,
for 3.5 H and acid concentration 0.3 M. The FTIR spectrum of the produced LA showed absorption at about 1705.13 cm-1 and 3039.91 cm-1 indicating the conjugated carbonyl and the hydroxyl of carboxylic acid functional group. It was recommended that high yields of LA can be achieved across a range of optimization variables as long as two out of the three conditions are met: high acid catalyst concentration, long reaction time or high temperature
within the range tested, as LA is relatively stable once formed. Finally, the results revealed that groundnut shell could be a potential substrate for levulinic acid production.

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Published

2021-12-31

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2021): UJPICR Volume 1 Number 2 : December, 2021

Section

Articles