Abstract
Increasing worldwide biodiesel production has led to the generation of an important glycerol surplus, which needs to be valorized in order to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the biodiesel industry. In this context, glycerol dehydration to acrolein by acid catalysis appears to be a potential route of glycerol valorization, since acrolein is an important intermediate for many chemical industries. The main drawback of this catalytic process is catalyst deactivation. Different alternatives have been proposed for overcoming it, such as the use of mesoporous materials in order to facilitate the diffusion of glycerol and reaction products, thus minimizing deactivation. This review compiles the main achievements of the use of mesoporous silica-containing materials that have been deployed either as a catalyst or for support in glycerol dehydration to acrolein. Thus, the effect of mesoporosity on both catalytic performance and deactivation will be discussed, as well as the blocking of pores by coke deposition.
Highlights
The growth of the world population, as well as improvement in quality of life, have caused an exponential consumption of fossil resources in the last century
The catalytic dehydration dehydration of glycerol can yield acrolein, which is a versatile intermediate that is largely employed of glycerol can yield acrolein, which is a versatile intermediate that is largely employed in the chemical in the chemical industry
The most relevant silica-based catalytic systems studied for glycerol dehydration will be reviewed, in particular those employing a mesoporous silica as support or catalyst
Summary
The growth of the world population, as well as improvement in quality of life, have caused an exponential consumption of fossil resources in the last century This has led to their depletion, so it the search and development of alternative energy sources to replace them efficiently is necessary. The triglycerides used for the synthesis of biodiesel (Table 1) are traditionally obtained from several oleaginous plants, such as soybean, palm, sunflower or rapeseed These vegetable oils are used in food industries; they must not be considered as sustainable raw materials, Materials 2018, 11, 1569; doi:10.3390/ma11091569 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials.
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