Thermodynamics of enzyme-catalyzed esterifications: II. Levulinic acid esterification with short-chain alcohols.

Levulinic acid was esterified with methanol, ethanol, and 1-butanol with the final goal to predict the maximum yield of these equilibrium-limited reactions as function of medium composition. In a first step, standard reaction data (standard Gibbs energy of reaction Δ g ) were determined from experimental formation properties. Unexpectedly, these Δ g values strongly deviated from data obtained with classical group contribution methods that are typically used if experimental standard data is not available.