Direct Solid Lewis Acid Catalyzed Wood Liquefaction into Lactic Acid: Kinetic Evidences that Wood Pretreatment Might Not be a Prerequisite. Issue 12 (1st June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Swesi, Youssef; Nguyen, Chuc; Ha Vu, Thi Thu; Rataboul, Franck; Eternot, Marion; Fongarland, Pascal; Essayem, Nadine
• Is Part Of: ChemCatChem. Volume 9:Issue 12(2017)
• Page Start: 2377
• Page End: 2382
• Publication Date: 2017-06-01
• Subjects: carboxylic acids -- hydrolysis -- Lewis acids -- renewable resources -- zirconium; Catalysis -- Periodicals; 541.39505
• DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201700112
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1867-3880

Abstract

Abstract: The objective of the present work was to determine if wood sawdust can be used instead of isolated cellulose in the general solid‐acid‐catalyzed production of chemicals. The kinetics of model cellulose and pine‐wood sawdust liquefaction into lactic acid were determined in the presence of a solid Lewis acid, ZrW. The catalytic hydrolysis of pine wood was performed at 190 °C in a large‐scale batch reactor (2.5 L). Similar kinetic curves of lactic formation were obtained for cellulose and wood as substrates. Moreover, the initial lactic acid production rate of pine‐wood sawdust was higher than that of model cellulose, proving that, in spite of the presence of lignin/hemicellulose, the catalyst drives the transformation towards lactic acid formation. However, our results give also evidence of solid‐catalyst deactivation for both cellulose and wood substrates. This result indicates that if wood pretreatment can be bypassed, the bottleneck will be the solid‐catalyst regeneration and recycling. Abstract : From wood to acid : The heterogeneously catalyzed production of chemicals from wood is shown to be not less difficult than that from isolated cellulose. Two coexisting pathways are proposed, the classical hydrolysis promoted by H3 O + and the direct production of lactic acid governed by the Lewis acid catalyst (ZrW).