Abstract

Lactic acid and acrylic acid are key platform molecules for a large range of applications, in particular polymers. While the production of lactic acid from biomass has been extensively described, much less literature concerns the synthesis of bioacrylic acid. Among the different potential routes, the dehydration of lactic acid or alkyl lactates to acrylic acid is still challenging, and this approach needs further optimization. In this chapter, we focus on mechanistic studies related to the dehydration of lactic acid to acrylic acid by considering potential relationships between acid-base properties and reaction selectivity.