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  • Review Article
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Production of bio-based lactones as monomers for a circular polymer economy

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 9, pages 749–765 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

To create a circular plastics economy, new polymers are being developed that can be chemically recycled. Circular polyesters are of particular interest and to this end, lactones are ideal monomers. This Review examines catalytic routes to convert diols, hydroxy acids, and dicarboxylic acids to lactones, focusing on the development of scalable, atom-economic, and energy-efficient conversions of bio-derived feedstocks. Free energy analysis is used to inform process choices, such as reactor type, reaction phase, and use of solvent. Catalyst design principles are summarized for both direct (bio-substrate to lactone) and indirect (bio-substrate to intermediate to lactone) routes. Finally, we summarize literature that shows that many lactone precursors are readily accessible from various metabolic and chemo-catalytic pathways. Transitioning to bio-based monomers offers an opportunity to reduce reliance on fossil carbon resources, but requires advanced catalytic processes informed by mechanistic insights.

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Fig. 1: Proposed bio-derived platform to chemo-catalytically produce β-lactones, ɣ-lactones, δ-lactones, and ε-lactones.
Fig. 2: Free energy analysis of monomer production pathways and process design considerations.
Fig. 3: Conversion of diols to epoxides.
Fig. 4: Lactone production from diols.
Fig. 5: Lactone production from hydroxy acids and diacids.
Fig. 6: Summary of key catalytic steps in circular monomer production.
Fig. 7: Homogeneous catalytic routes to 4-membered lactones.
Fig. 8: Overview of bioconversion processes to produce diols, hydroxy acids, and dicarboxylic acids.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Office (AMMTO) and Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). This work was performed as part of the Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE) Consortium and was supported by AMMTO and BETO at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the US Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. The BOTTLE Consortium includes members from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Puerto Rico — Mayagüez, and Colorado State University. D.K. was in part supported by the Director’s Fellowship — Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at NREL. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the US Government. The US Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide licence to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for US Government purposes. The authors thank S. Mohammed for help with the Gibbs free energy analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

    Daniyal Kiani, Ross Eaglesfield, James H. May, Allison Z. Werner & Gregg T. Beckham

  2. BOTTLE Consortium, Golden, CO, USA

    Daniyal Kiani, Ross Eaglesfield, James H. May, Allison Z. Werner & Gregg T. Beckham

  3. Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Eugene Y.-X. Chen

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yuriy Román-Leshkov

  5. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico — Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, USA

    Yomaira J. Pagán-Torres

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  1. Daniyal Kiani
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Contributions

G.T.B. and D.K. conceptualized the review. D.K. was responsible for data curation. G.T.B., D.K., R.E., J.H.M. and A.Z.W. were responsible for formal analysis and visualization. All authors were involved in writing, reviewing, and editing drafts of the manuscript. G.T.B. supervised and administered the project and was responsible for funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Gregg T. Beckham.

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Competing interests

Several of the authors have filed patent applications on chemo-catalytic lactone production, but the specific technology is not discussed herein. D.K. and G.T.B. are inventors on a patent application (US patent application no. 63/790,923) that covers lactone production from diols. J.H.M., E.Y.-X.C., and G.T.B. are inventors on a patent application (US patent application no. 63/843,527) that covers β-lactone production. Y.R.-L. is an inventor on a patent application (US patent application no. 19/279,265) that covers a continuous method for producing lactones.

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Kiani, D., Eaglesfield, R., May, J.H. et al. Production of bio-based lactones as monomers for a circular polymer economy. Nat Rev Chem 9, 749–765 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00765-9

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