A Study of Glucose Transformation to Lactic acid and Methyl lactate
Engblom, Simon (2021)
Engblom, Simon
2021
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202101262811
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202101262811
Tiivistelmä
Lactic acid and methyl lactate are platform molecules that hold great potential within the biorefinery industry. They are currently produced through a combination of enzymatic and fermentation processes within the industry, but the inefficient and costly nature of the procedure makes the catalytic route an interesting alternative. In this work, the catalytic one-pot transformation of glucose to lactic acid and methyl lactate using tin-loaded beta and faujasite catalysts was studied. The catalysts were produced using four different metal grafting methods and a broad range of characterization methods were performed on fresh catalysts to study the impact of the methods on both the catalyst properties and yield of reaction products. The dealumination of both beta and faujasite resulted in higher product yields and treatment with alkali ions should increase it further. Challenges with the analytical methods rendered the major part of the results unusable, so the results were inconclusive and further optimization of the catalysts are needed for a sufficient product yield to be achieved.