From glycerol to lactic acid under inert conditions in the presence of platinum-based catalysts: The influence of support

• Lactic acid was obtained up to 80% yield from glycerol.
• Reaction was carried out under inert atmosphere in the presence of Pt/ZrO2 catalysts.
• Similar selectivities were achieved using either pure or crude glycerol.

In this work, it was shown that glycerol (Gly) can be effectively converted to lactic acid (LA) under inert atmosphere using a Pt/ZrO2 catalyst. Starting from pure glycerol, at 180 °C and under a He pressure of 30 bar, we were able to achieve up to 80% yield of LA after a reaction time of 8 h. The catalysts performance of Pt/TiO2, Pt/C and Pt/ZrO2 were compared showing that using Pt/ZrO2 high conversion and stable LA selectivity were achieved during all the process. Further, using Pt/ZrO2 the LA selectivity was less sensitive to the nature of the reaction atmosphere while using either H2 or He. While using crude Gly (85% purity), a lower reaction rate was obtained in the presence of Pt/ZrO2, however high selectivity to LA (∼80%) was maintained.

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