Production of lactic acid derivatives from sugars over post-synthesized Sn-Beta zeolite promoted by WO3.

Various metal oxides were used as co-catalysts to improve the production of alkyl lactate over Sn-Beta-P. WO3 exhibited the best promotion effect. The yield of MLA increased from 25% (6.5 g L-1) over Sn-Beta-P (0.2 g) to 52% (13.4 g L-1) over WO3 (0.1 g) and Sn-Beta-P (0.1 g) at 160 °C for 5 h and 3.1 wt% of glucose concentration. MLA yield of 38% was attained even at glucose concentration of 10 wt% and the space-time yield reached 7.1 g L-1 h-1. The action mechanism of WO3 was investigated. Fine WO3 particles adsorbed on surface of Sn-Beta-P in reaction media and decreased the silanol defects of Sn-Beta-P. This promotes retro-aldol of fructose, the rate-determining step of whole reaction, thus facilitated the formation of MLA. Kinetic studies indicate that the presence of WO3 decreased the activation energy of the retro-aldol of fructose. The binary solid WO3 and Sn-Beta-P is recyclable.