Biomass-derived intermediate chemicals, such as furfuryl alcohol (FA) and levulinic acid (LA) are feeds for ethanolysis reaction to produce ethyl levulinate (EL). EL is a promising chemical that can be used as a biofuel additive and precursor for chemical synthesis, such as γ-valerolactone. The present study conducted the ethanolysis of FA and LA using modified carbon cryogel as heterogeneous catalysts for improving the EL yield. The carbon cryogel (UCC) precursor was produced from urea and furfural, and modified via sulfonation. Iron (Fe) doping was then conducted to improve the surface chemistry of the catalyst. The catalytic activity of sulfonated carbon cryogel (UCC-S) was evaluated for LA ethanolysis, and the UCC-S-Fe prepared from the incorporation of Fe on UCC-S was utilised to catalyse FA ethanolysis. The effects of reaction parameters (i.e., time, molar ratio of ethanol to feed, catalyst loading, and reaction temperature) were significant on the catalytic performance. High EL yield of 95.8 mol% and 95.4 mol% were obtained from the ethanolysis of LA and FA, respectively. The performance of ethanolysis of carbohydrates and various biomass samples was evaluated to determine the EL yield using UCC-S-Fe. Both UCC-S and UCC-S-Fe were characterised using FTIR, XRD, TGA, NH₃-TPD, BET, and SEM-EDX. The modification of UCC via sulfonation and Fe-doping improved the catalyst properties, and UCC-S-Fe demonstrated the potential to enhance biomass conversion to EL.

生物质衍生的中间化学品，例如糠醇（FA）和乙酰丙酸（LA）是用于乙醇化反应以生产乙酰丙酸乙酯（EL）的原料。EL是一种有前途的化学品，可以用作生物燃料添加剂和化学合成的前体，例如γ-戊内酯。本研究使用改性碳冷冻凝胶作为多相催化剂进行FA和LA的乙醇化反应，以提高EL收率。碳冻凝胶（UCC）前体由尿素和糠醛生产，并通过磺化改性。然后进行铁（Fe）掺杂以改善催化剂的表面化学性质。评价了磺化碳冷冻凝胶（UCC-S）对LA乙醇解的催化活性，并且通过将Fe掺入UCC-S中制备的UCC-S-Fe被用于催化FA乙醇解。反应参数的影响（i。例如，时间，乙醇与进料的摩尔比，催化剂负载量和反应温度对催化性能有重要影响。从LA和FA的乙醇化作用分别获得了95.8mol％和95.4mol％的高EL产率。使用UCC-S-Fe对碳水化合物和各种生物质样品的乙醇分解性能进行了评估，以确定EL收率。使用FTIR，XRD，TGA，NH对UCC-S和UCC-S-Fe进行表征_3- TPD，BET和SEM-EDX。通过磺化和Fe掺杂对UCC进行改性可以改善催化剂的性能，而UCC-S-Fe具有提高生物质向EL转化的潜力。