Magnesium Oxide‐Catalyzed Conversion of Chitin to Lactic Acid

Although chitin, an N ‐acetyl‐D‐glucosamine polysaccharide, can be converted to valuable products by means of homogeneous catalysis, most of the chitin generated by food processing is treated as industrial waste. Thus, a method for converting this abundant source of biomass to useful chemicals, such as lactic acid, would be beneficial. In this study, we determined the catalytic activities of various metal oxides for chitin conversion at 533 K...