A novel SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was prepared and its activity was evaluated for the conversion of furfuryl alcohol (FA) to ethyl levulinate (EL) through liquid phase alcoholysis. The activity of SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was compared with various treated zeolite materials such as H-ZSM-5, desilicated H-ZSM-5, meso-HZSM-5 wherein, SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 was found to be the highly selective and tangible catalyst. The outcomes of various operating parameters were also checked and optimized using Taguchi method in an autoclave reactor. A high yield of ethyl levulinate (89%) was achieved under optimized reaction conditions, i.e., temperature 110 °C, reaction time 5 h, catalyst dosages 0.8 g, and FA concentration 0.5 M. The catalyst recovered through separation and calcination was reused four times and found to be reasonably good with 48% yield of EL.

A novel SBA-15/H-ZSM-5 composite catalyst was prepared and its activity was evaluated for the conversion of furfuryl alcohol (FA) to ethyl levulinate (EL) through liquid phase alcoholysis.