Electricity Storage in Biofuels: Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of Levulinic Acid to Valeric acid or γ-Valerolactone

摘要

High energy-density liquid transportation fuels are critically important to a mobile, dynamic and sustainable society. Lignocellulosic biomass are considered the most dominant renewable source of liquid fuels to replace the depleting fossil fuel resources (i.e. petroleum, natural gas, etc), because they are very cheap, abundant, and annually renewable. The U.S. DOE has identified the top ten abundant, inexpensive biomass-derived compounds that will constitute the primary building blocks for our future production of chemicals and fuels. Among them, levulinic acid can be massively produced from lignocellulose through hydrolysis with dilute sulfuric acid, which is considered the most promising method in terms of cost, yield and scalability.