Chapter 8 - Lactic acid/lactates production from biomass over chemocatalytic strategies

Abstract

Lactic acid (LA, 2-hydroxypropanoic acid), an important biomass-derived commodity chemical, has found wide applications in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. In spite of the current fermentation of saccharides to produce LA, sustainability issues such as environmental impact and high cost derived from the relative separation and purification process are increasing. Alternatively, chemocatalytic approaches to manufacture LA from biomass (i.e., inedible cellulose) have attracted extensive attention, which may give rise to higher productivity and lower costs related to product work-up. This chapter reviews the state of the art for the production of LA using homogeneous and heterogeneous acid and base catalysts from sugars and real biomass such as rice straw, respectively. Furthermore, the corresponding biobased esters lactate, which could be produced from biomass via chemocatalysis and serve as green solvents, are also discussed. The advantages of heterogeneous catalytic reaction systems are emphasized. Guidance is suggested to improve the catalytic performance of heterogeneous catalysts for the production of LA.