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- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received August 24, 2023
Accepted December 11, 2023
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Facile Utilization of Carbon Dioxide for the Esterifi cation of Potassium Lactate to Butyl Lactate
Abstract
The utilization of CO 2 is crucial for the sustainable growth of human society. Herein, we present the direct esterifi cation of
potassium lactate (KL) with butanol under CO 2 pressurization, resulting in the synthesis of butyl lactate (BL). The pressurized
CO 2 reacts with water to generate carbonic acid, thereby facilitating esterifi cation. A single batch reaction yielded 17%
of BL, which could be augmented to 36% via two successive operations. Ultimately, through the utilization of a minimal
quantity of H 2 SO 4 in the fi nal step, the complete conversion of KL to BL was achieved with a selectivity exceeding 99%. The
proposed integrated process necessitates approximately 63% less mineral acid compared to conventional lactate separation.
An exploration of the eff ect of various reaction parameters, including reaction temperature, duration, CO 2 pressure, and H 2 O
content in the KL, was also conducted.
