A new chemical process for catalytic conversion of d-glucose into lactic acid and gluconic acid Original Research Article

In this work, the catalytic conversion of monosaccharides, such as d-glucose, d-fructose, d-mannose, d-galactose, and d-xylose, into lactic acid and aldonic acid in an alkaline media using supported noble metal catalysts under flowing air was investigated. Thus far, the conventional chemical conversions of d-glucose into lactic acid, such as alkaline degradations and hot water reactions, involved large amounts of by-products including unidentified compounds. To improve the atom economy for the d-glucose conversion, we examined a one-pot reaction of d-glucose into lactic acid and gluconic acid with the alkaline degradation and the air oxidation using supported metal catalysts. It succeeded in yielding about 45 C-% of lactic acid and about 45 C-% of gluconic acid from d-glucose using Pt/C catalysts with a 1.0 mol L−1 of sodium hydroxide aqueous solution at 353 K under flowing air.