Mechanistic Insights into the Production of Methyl Lactate by Catalytic Conversion of Carbohydrates on Mesoporous Zr-SBA-15 Lisha Yang 1 , Xiaokun Yang 1 , Elli Tian 2 , Vivek Vattipalli 3 , Wei Fan 3 , and Hongfei Lin 1 * 1 Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno 1664 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89557, USA. Fax: (+1) 775-327-5059; 2 Department of Biomedical Engineering Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205 3 Department of Chemical Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003 *Tel: (+1)775-784-4697; E-mail: HongfeiL@unr.edu © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/