Abstract
High production of biodiesel results in a surplus of glycerol as a byproduct that leads to a drastic decline in the glycerol price as well as overall biodiesel production. Alternative methods must be introduced for the economical process for biodiesel production via utilization of crude glycerol into valuable chemicals or fuel additives. This study introduces an ecofriendly process of solketal synthesis from glycerol and acetone in the presence of a novel metakaolin clay catalyst, which is a useful additive in biodiesel or gasoline, in order to enhance the octane number and to control the emissions. Moreover, kaolin clay catalysts are low cost, abundantly available, eco-friendly and one of the more promising applications for solketal synthesis. In this study, raw kaolin clay was activated with an easy acid activation technique, modification in physicochemical and textural properties were determined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope. Among all acid-treated catalysts, metakaolin K3 have shown best catalytic properties, high surface area and pore size after acid activation with 3.0 mol/dm3 at 98 °C for 3 h. Acetalization of glycerol with acetone carried out in the presence of an environmentally friendly and inexpensive novel metakaolin K3 catalyst. The maximum yield of solketal obtained was 84% at a temperature of 50 °C, acetone/glycerol molar ratio 6/1 and for 90 min with novel metakaolin clay catalyst. Effect of various parameters (time, temperature, acetone/glycerol molar ratio, catalyst loading) on the solketal yield and glycerol conversion was discussed in detail. This approach offers an effective way to transform glycerol into solketal—a desirable green chemical with future industrial applications.
Highlights
Natural gas, petroleum and their derivatives are fuels that make it possible to provide efficient and faster means of transportation, as well as play a significant role in manufacturing [1]
The raw kaolin Raw Kaolin (RK) showed high peak intensities which refers to the high moisture content in the clay [28]
The synthesis of solketal from glycerol carried out in the presence of acid-activated metakaolin catalysts and the best performance was shown by metakaolin clay sample namely K3, activated with 3 mol/dm3 of HCl aqueous solution
Summary
Petroleum and their derivatives are fuels that make it possible to provide efficient and faster means of transportation, as well as play a significant role in manufacturing [1]. Though they may not survive more than a few decades as their supplies are limited, and their usage is the primary source of CO2 , gas correlated with global warming and climate change diverges attention towards alternative fuels [2,3]. Global production of glycerol has been estimated to increase from 5 million tons in 2005 to 36 million tons in 2020 [5]. It is imperative to find some applications of glycerol into a useful product and valuable chemicals. Several efforts have been made to transform glycerol
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