Preparation of diethylene glycol monomethyl ether monolaurate catalyzed by active carbon supported KF/CaO.

Shengfeng Lou,Lianbing Gao,Jianjun Wang,Ping Wu,Lihua Jia,Xiangfeng Guo

doi:10.1186/s40064-015-1486-5

Abstract

Diethylene glycol monomethyl ether monolaurate (DGMEML) was synthesized via the reaction of diethylene glycol monomethyl ether (DGME) with methyl laurate (ML) by a new solid base catalyst of KF/CaO/AC, which was prepared by impregnation method using active carbon as carrier. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen physisorption-desorption and Hammett indicator methods; the effect of the mole ratio of KF to CaO, DGME to ML molar ratio, amount of catalyst, reaction time and temperature on the yield of DGMEML were studied; and the relationship between the structure of the catalyst and the yield of DGMEML was investigated. The formed KCaF3 and K2O were acting as the main active components in the catalytic transesterification; the highest yield of 96.3 % was obtained as KF-to-CaO molar ratio of 2.0, DGME to ML molar ratio of 4.0, catalyst amount of 5 wt%, and reaction time of 30 min at 75 °C; and the catalyst displayed good stability in the transesterification.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-015-1486-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Biodiesel originated from the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats with short chain alcohols has been attracted more attention for the biodegradable, nontoxic, comparable calorific value and relative lower emission of NOx and CO2 to the petroleum diesel; and the production of biodiesel increased rapidly around the world (Shahir et al 2015; Avhad and Marchetti 2015; Gopinath et al 2015)
Some studies tried successfully to introduce one ether group or more into biodiesel molecules to further reduce smoke emissions, and a novel biodiesel synthesized via the transesterification of fatty acids methyl esters with short chain glycol ethers, such as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether palm oil monoester (Jiang and Yun 2012), ethylene glycol n-propyl ether palm oil monoester (Gao et al 2011), ethylene glycol monoethyl ether soybean oil monoester (Zhang et al 2006), and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether palm oil monoester (Jiang et al 2011; Guo et al 2015a) et al have been developed
Diethylene glycol monomethyl ether monolaurate (DGMEML) sample was synthesized by our laboratory reference to the literature (Jiang 2012), and the structure was confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectrum, which are shown in SI

Summary

Introduction

Biodiesel originated from the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats with short chain alcohols has been attracted more attention for the biodegradable, nontoxic, comparable calorific value and relative lower emission of NOx and CO2 to the petroleum diesel; and the production of biodiesel increased rapidly around the world (Shahir et al 2015; Avhad and Marchetti 2015; Gopinath et al 2015). Na2SiO3 (Fan et al 2013), KF/HTL (Chen et al 2014b) and KF/CaO/Kaolinite (Guo et al 2015c) acting as solid base catalysts have been respectively used in the production of novel biodiesel of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether soybean oil ester and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether monolaurate. The simple methods of filtration, centrifugation can be used to separate the solid catalyst from the reaction system. It has becoming a promising route for the production of novel biodiesel

Methods

Results

Conclusion