Procedimento di produzione dell’acido levulinico e suoi esteri a partire da materie prime rinnovabili e da prodotti di scarto di origine vegetale

Renewable raw materials and waste products of plant origin (e.g., cellulose, waste paper, waste cotton and rayon, tobacco ribs, extd. citrus peel, sugars or sugar prodn. wastes, waste from wood and cereal processing, residues of dried fruits, grape marc, extd. olive husks, wet fraction of municipal solid wastes) are used to obtain levulinic acid by acid hydrolysis (e.g., with hydrochloric acid) in the presence of a salt (e.g., sodium chloride). No preliminary treatment or purifn. is required. Addn. of alc. during processing gives the corresponding ester without formation of insol. byproducts.