Kinetic study of levulinic acid production from corn stalk at mild temperature using FeCl3 as catalyst

•Study of LA production from corn stalk using FeCl3 as catalyst at mild temperature.•A broadly applicable kinetic model was developed to interpret the reaction process among glucose, HMF and LA.•The analysis of related kinetic parameters and response surface plots of LA yield provide a deep insight into reaction process.•The maximum concentration of levulinic acid of 16.14 g/L was observed at 180 °C, 40 min with 0.5 mol/L FeCl3 with the yield of 48.89%.

In this study, FeCl3 was proven to be an efficient catalyst for glucan hydrolysis to produce levulinic acid (LA) with corn stalk as substrate. The use of a well evaluated and detailed model to study the kinetics, and the use of corn stalk instead of cellulose as raw material to produce LA, make our work original. Through the experiment, a maximum LA concentration of 16.14 g/L was obtained under 180 °C with 0.5 mol/L FeCl3 and that equates to an LA yield of 48.89%. A mechanistic kinetic model was developed to predict the yields of glucose, HMF and LA that are consistent with the experimental results. The analysis of related kinetic parameters and the response surface plots of LA yield with respect to temperature and catalyst concentration helped to provide a deep insight into the whole reaction process.