Study on Reaction Conditions of Cotton Hydrolysis using a Lactic Acid as a Catalyst

Abstract

The conversion of biomass waste containing cellulose to fuel or chemical raw materials is desirable. Therefore, we sought to hydrolyze cotton waste, which is mainly composed of cellulose, to produce glucose. Then, this glucose was fermented to produce lactic acid, which is a raw material for bioplastics as polylactic acid. In addition, the lactic acid was used as a catalyst to promote the hydrolysis of cotton and to reduce the catalyst separation costs. For this paper, we investigated the optimum reaction conditions and reactor selection in order to promote the hydrolysis of cotton while suppressing excessive degradation of the glucose. The results suggest that high reaction temperature and long retention time are effective to promote the hydrolysis of cotton. However, low temperature and short retention time are effective to suppress excessive degradation of the glucose. This confirmed that a semi-flow reactor, which can discharge solution that contains glucose at any time, should be adopted to promote cotton hydrolysis while suppressing excessive glucose degradation.