RT Journal Article
T1 Chemicals from biomass: 												Synthesis of lactic acid by alkaline hydrothermal conversion of sorbitol
A1 Ramírez-López, Camilo A.
A1 Ochoa-Gómez, José R.
A1 Gil-Río, Silvia
A1 Gómez-Jiménez-Aberasturi, Olga
A1 Torrecilla-Soria, Jesús
AB BACKGROUND: Currently, the 'green chemistry' philosophy is being increasingly adopted by the chemical industry and, therefore, new production procedures of valuable chemicals from biomass-derived raw materials are being sought. In this work, the synthesis of lactic acid from sorbitol under alkaline hydrothermal conditions is investigated by analyzing the influence on conversions and yields of temperature, NaOH/sorbitol molar ratio (MR), initial sorbitol concentration (SC) and reaction time. RESULTS: A 100% sorbitol conversion and a maximum 39.5% yield of lactic acid on a carbon basis are obtained at 280 °C, 50 min, 1.0 mol L-1 SC and 2.0 MR. Glyceraldehyde was the only identified intermediate while formic acid, acrylic acid, acetic acid, oxalic acid and sodium carbonate were identified as over-oxidation products, all of them in very low yields with the exception of formic acid (16% yield at a MR of 4 and 280 °C). Several plausible conversion routes of sorbitol involving dehydrations, keto-enol tautomerisms, reverse aldol condensations, aldol condensations, Cannizzaro reactions and oxidations are proposed. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the high number of parallel conversion routes as a consequence of high functionality of sorbitol, the 39.5% lactic acid yield obtained is a good result. Total carbon mass in all identified products only justifies, at most, 50% of that in sorbitol due to the coexistence of several conversion routes resulting in a large number of products other than lactic acid.
SN 0268-2575
YR 2011
FD 2011-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/11556/4015
UL https://hdl.handle.net/11556/4015
LA eng
NO Ramírez-López , C A , Ochoa-Gómez , J R , Gil-Río , S , Gómez-Jiménez-Aberasturi , O & Torrecilla-Soria , J 2011 , ' Chemicals from biomass : Synthesis of lactic acid by alkaline hydrothermal conversion of sorbitol ' , Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology , vol. 86 , no. 6 , pp. 867-874 . https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.2602
DS TECNALIA Publications
RD 30 jul 2024