Roles of Ce1-xZrxO2/SBA-15 in selective catalytic glycerol conversion to lactic acid process: Process behaviors and kinetic analyses

Abstract The surge in glycerol production from oleochemical industry prompted the aggressive search for new value-added derivatives such as lactic acid. A series of novel Ce1 − xZrxO₂ catalysts on mesoporous SBA-15 were synthesized and tested in a 50 mL reactor for up to 2 hours for oxidative lactic acid synthesis from glycerol. A suitable kinetic model to represent the reaction was identified and kinetic parameters were calculated. The 10Ce1 − xZrxO₂/SBA-15 catalyst, at a 15 wt.% catalyst-to-glycerol ratio, exhibited impressive activity, achieving 94.2% glycerol conversion and 45.3% lactic acid yield at 260°C. The reaction model shows good agreement with experimental data across various reaction conditions (R² values between 0.90 and 1.00). Based on a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, the selective conversion of glycerol to lactic acid was found to have an activation energy of 165.3 kJ/mol, with a high R² value of 0.94 which was lower than some reported results.