STUDY OF ACID CATALYSTS IN THE GLYCEROL ETHERIFICATION WITH BENZYL ALCOHOL

Abstract

Glycerol (Gly) is the major by-product of the biodiesel production (approximately 10 wt.%). There are different research focusing on developing glycerol utilization to produce value-added chemicals. One of them is the etherification with alcohols in the presence of acidic catalysts. In the present work, the catalytic behaviour of SiO2-based system functionalized with heteropolyacids (HPA: H3O40PW12.xH2O) was studied in the etherification of Gly with benzyl alcohol (BA). The solids were impregnated with different solutions of a HPA (28, 35 and 40%) and characterized. Very good catalytic performance was achieved (94% conversion and 78% of selectivity to ME1: 3-benzyloxy-1, 2-propanediol) after 360 min of reaction, at 120°C and Gly: BA= 3:1, with 10 wt.% of SiO2-HPA35. This system was compared with functionalized carbon-based catalysts (Cst-SO3H and Ccs-SO3H) and it was observed that the results were similar, conversion over 90% and selectivity between 70 -80% to some of the desired products (ME1).