Abstract: The simulative hydrolysate containing levulinic acid(LA) and sulfuric acid was used to study the effect of sulfuric acid on LA distillation and purification. The effect of H⁺ concentration, the sulfate concentration and the distillation temperature were comprehensively studied for the separation of LA. Further investigation of the alkali neutralization revealed that the neutralization of H⁺ by sodium hydroxide could effectively increase the recovery of LA. The presence of sulfuric acid was not conducive to the separation and purification of LA, and the concentration of H⁺ was the main negative factor for LA recovery. The higher concentration of sulfate was beneficial to the LA recovery to a certain extent and the optimal distillation temperature was 170-180℃ at a constant H⁺ concentration. Using sodium hydroxide to neutralize hydrogen ions in the simulated hydrolysate, desirable LA recovery with high purity could be expected. When the simulative hydrolysate contained 100 mL water, 0.1 mol LA and 0.03 mol sulfuric acid, LA recovery of 84.5% with the purity of 93.3% could be obtained with the addition of 0.06 mol NaOH and distillation in vacuum at 170℃. Furthermore, the separation of LA from the hydrolysate derived from the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of raw biomass was also studied. The separation of LA was carried out after the neutralization by adding sodium hydroxide, and the final recovery rate of LA(purity 93.5%) up to 91.8% was achieved when the molar ratio of NaOH to sulfate was 1.4.