Hydroxypropionic industrial applications

Acrylic acid is an important chemical building block used in the manufacture of polyacrylates and commodity acrylates. Commodity acrylates, such as methyl, ethyl, n-butyl, and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, are utilized in various industrial applications, including coatings, adhesives and sealants, textiles and fibers, polymer additives/impact modifiers, and films. Polyacrylates are extensively used as super absorbent polymers. Bio-based acrylic acid can be obtained through the fermentation of carbohydrates to 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HPA), and further dehydration of 3-HPA gives acrylic acid. 3-HPA could also be used as a precursor to other important chemical building blocks, such as PDO, acrylonitrile, and acrylamide. Via another route, glycerol can be chemically converted to acrylic acid, either by dehydration to acrolein followed by oxidation to the final product or in a one-step oxydehydration. 

Although already discovered in 1780 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele,who isolated the lactic acid from sour milk, lactic acid has attracted more recently a great deal of attention due to its widespread applications, mainly in food, chemical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. Also, it has a great potential for the production of biodegradable and biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA) and, besides 3-hydroxypropionic acid, as an intermediate for sugar-based acrylic acid. Lactic acid production can be achieved either by chemical synthesis routes or by fermentative production (lactic acid fermentation). By the chemical synthesis route, a racemic mixture of DL-lactic acid is usually... 

Ethyl lactate (ethyl 2-hydroxypropionate) is a nontoxic biodegradable compoxmd naturally found in a variety of food and industrially produced via esterification of lactic acid with ethanol [149]. Both of the components for the production of ethyl lactate are derived from renewable raw material (including low-cost agricultural waste) mainly by the fermentation process. This environmentally benign solvent with high boiling point (154 °C) and low volatility has properties superior to many conventional petroleum-based solvents and can substitute them as an eco-friendly alternative in many reactions [150,151]. The applications of ethyl lactate as a medium for the multicomponent heterocyclic synthesis are exemplified below. 

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