Effect of Ball Milling on the Catalytic Conversion of Cellulose to Levulinic Acid Amir Sada Khan 1, 2, a* , Zakaria B Man 1, b , Mohammad Azmi Bustam @ Khalil 1 and Chong Fai Kait 3 , Abdulhalim Shah Maulud 1 1 PETRONAS Ionic Liquid Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia. 2 Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology, Bannu 28100, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. 3 Fundamental and Applied Siences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia. a aamirsada_khan@yahoo.com, b zakaman@petronas.com.my Keyword: Ball milling, Levulinic Acid, Cellulose, Aluminium (III) Chloride, 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Abstract: The yield of levulinic acid from cellulose is very low because of a strong network of intera- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Ball milling cause significant decrease in the cellulose crystalinity and thus increase the production of levulinic acid (LA) by using Aluminum Chloride (AlCl 3 ) as a catalyst. By means of AlCl 3 depolymerization, cellulose can produce 5- Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and subsequently LA. The effect of reaction temperature and time were investigated. The maximum yield of LA (36.5 mol %) was achieved using 180 o C and 240 min. Introduction Levulinic acid (LA) acid is a versatile building block for the chemical industry. It contains both ketone carbonyl group and acidic carboxyl functional gropus. The existence of both these nucleophilic groups give an interesting reactivity patterns to the levulinic acid [1, 2]. It is a potential precursor to nylon-like polymers, synthetic rubbers, resin, flavor substances, fuel additives, plastics, valerolactone, and ethyl levulinate etc. [3, 4]. In the past few years researchers trying to develop suitable and effective ways for converting lignocelluose biomasses, cellulose and glucose into valuable chemicals, useful biomaterials and bio-fuels [5]. Efforts have been focused on the catalytic conversion of cellulose into LA because it has lower price and wide supply as well [6-8]. Mostly the researchers synthesized 5-HMF and LA from cellulose, sucrose, or directly biomass materials [9]. But the crystalline cellulose has a super molecular structure and has strong network of of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds which make the conversion of cellulose into LA limited. Because of the high crystallinity now no research group is succeded to efficiently convert cellulose into LA [10]. The key objective of this study to investigate the conversion of ball mill cellulose into LA. The effect of ball milling on the structure of cellulose was first investigated, followed by conversion behavior of ball milled cellulose into LA. Methodology Materials Cellulose, AlCl 3 and concentrated sulfuric acid (95-97 wt. %) were purchased from Merck. HPLC grade 5-HMF (99%), and LA (99%) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich. The ball milled cellulose sample were prepared by using ball mill. The 25g cellulose sample was charged into a 500 mL ZrO 2 bottle, for 6 hour sessions. Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 625 (2014) pp 353-356 Online available since 2014/Sep/12 at www.scientific.net © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.625.353 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 128.210.126.199, Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, USA-22/01/15,19:45:31)