Obtaining glycerol carbonate and glycols using thermomorphic systems based on glycerol and cyclic organic carbonates: Kinetic studies

Abstract

Glycerol carbonate has mostly been synthesized by transesterification of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate and ethylene carbonate. We propose to obtain it using propylene and butylene carbonate as co-substrates with Na2CO3 as catalyst, also generating 1,2-propanediol and 1,2-butanediol. The reactants exhibit thermomorphic behavior, so we capitalized on this feature to avoid mass transfer limitations instead of using co-solvents. The kinetics of both reactions were studied, obtaining activation energies and deactivation constants of 67.13±1.82kJmol−1 and 0.14±0.02min−1 for the reaction between glycerol and propylene carbonate and 58.56±1.10kJmol−1 and 0.39±0.03min−1 for the reaction of glycerol with butylene carbonate.