Hydrothermal conversion of cellulose into lactic acid with nickel catalyst

Utilization of biomass has become a major topic of research around the world. One promising aspect of utilization is production of lactic acid from carbohydrate biomass. Our previous study showed that lactic acid can be formed from glucose and cellulose by alkaline hydrothermal reactions, but the yield of lactic acid was low, particular for cellulose. In this study, an efficient method for producing lactic acid from cellulose under hydrothermal conditions with NaOH in the presence of nickel was developed. Experiments were conducted in a batch reactor at 300°C for 1-4 min. Results showed that nickel could promote the yield of lactic acid from cellulose. The highest yield of 34.07% was obtained by adding 0.5 mmol nickel using 2.5 M NaOH solution at 300°C for 1 min.