Production of Biofuel Additives from Esterification and Acetalization of Bioglycerol over SnO2-Based Solid Acids

Abstract

Owing to significant environmental and economical concerns of fossil fuels, the search for alternative renewable fuels has received a explicit research interest in recent times. In this work, we prepared efficient solid acid catalysts, namely, SnO2, WO3/SnO2, MoO3/SnO2, and SO42–/SnO2 for the production of bioadditive fuels from bioglycerol under ecofriendly conditions. The synthesized samples were meticulously analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, Barrett–Joyner–Halenda pore size distribution, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, FT-IR analysis of adsorbed pyridine, NH3-temperature programmed desorption, and other techniques. The catalytic efficiency of these solid acids was investigated for esterification and acetalization of glycerol with acetic acid and benzaldehyde, respectively. Characterization studies revealed that the textural properties (crystallite size and BET surface area) of pristine SnO2 were outstand...