Ethyl Lactate Main Properties, Production Processes, and Applications

Abstract

Petroleum is still the basis for the production of chemicals. Nevertheless, alternatives such as biomass and waste have been developed due to both environmental impacts of petroleum production and use, and uncertainty about the longevity and stability of petroleum supplies. Ethyl lactate is derived from nature-based feedstocks (it is synthesized trough the esterification reaction between ethanol and lactic acid, both reactants generated from biomass raw materials), and can be used in place of several environment-damaging halogenated and toxic solvents, including ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons, carcinogenic methylene chloride, and toxic ethylene glycol ethers and chloroform. This chapter presents an overview regarding ethyl lactate main properties, its synthesis and production processes, with particular emphasis to reactive/separation processes based on innovative technologies, as reactive distillation, membrane reactors and simulated moving bed reactors, and its applications (mainly for extraction of bioactive compounds from natural sources).