Acetylation of Glycerol over Highly Stable and Active Sulfated Alumina Catalyst: Reaction Mechanism, Kinetic Modeling and Estimation of Kinetic Parameters

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson (LHHW) kinetic model was developed for acetylation of glycerol over highly stable and active 2 M SO42−/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst. The apparent reaction rate constants were determined by numerically solving the differential rate equations using ode23 tool in MATLAB coupled with the genetic algorithm optimization technique. The estimated rate constants were used to obtain the activation energy and pre‐exponential factor by using the Arrhenius equation. The estimated activation energy for direct acetylation of glycerol to monoacetylglycerol and diacetylglycerol was 7.2 kJ mol−1, for acetylation of monoacetylglycerol to diacetylglycerol was 37.1 kJ mol−1, and for acetylation of diacetylglycerol to triacetylglycerol was 26.6 kJ mol−1, respectively.