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Levulinic acid (LA), 4-oxo-pentanoic acid, is a new platform chemical with various potential uses. In this paper, catalytic hydrogenation and oxidation of levulinic acid were studied. It was shown from experiments that levulinic acid can be hydrogenated to γ-valerolactone (GVL) over transition metal catalysts and oxidative-decarboxylated to 2-butanone (methyl-ethyl-ketone, MEK) and methyl-vinyl-ketone (MVK) by cupric oxide (CuO), cupric oxide/cerium oxide (CuO/CeO2), cupric oxide/ alumina (CuO/ Al2O3), and silver(I)/ peroxydisulfate (Ag(I)/S2O82-).