A Preliminary Study of Catalytic Hydrothermal Conversion of Cellulose to Lactic Acid: Effects of Reaction Temperature and Metal Ion Catalyst

Abstract Cellulose biopolymer was converted to lactic acid by catalytic hydrothermal method. The conversion was studied under various temperatures (120 to 190 °C) and types of metal ion catalyst (Pb 2+ and Al 3+ ), while the reaction period remained fixed at 3 h. Following the reaction, the recovery of untreated cellulose and the mass loss were determined by gravimetric means. Meanwhile, the resultant liquid products were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for detecting the targeted products: lactic acid, glucose, and fructose. The study reveals useful insights; elevating the reaction temperature was found to increase the mass loss, so did the yield of the targeted products. On the other hand, using a metal ion catalyst, possessing stronger Lewis acidity character, further enhanced lactic acid production.