Synthesis of Zeolite Catalyst from Geothermal Solid Waste for Crude Glycerol Dehydration to Acrolein

Abstract

Limited reserves of conventional fossil fuels have led people to come up with alternative fuels. Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels that mostly produced nowadays. Glycerol as byproduct of biodiesel production can be converted to acrolein trough dehydration reaction. Acrolein is an important intermediate for the production of chemicals product and also used for agricultures. Application of various catalyst in glycerol dehydration to acrolein has been reported. Zeolite is a micro-porous, alumino-silicate mineral that can be used as catalyst for this reaction. Geothermal solid waste contains silica that can be used as zeolite catalyst raw material. In this research, zeolite catalyst was synthesized from geothermal solid waste in hydrothermal reactor at 150°C for 8 hours. The catalyst product was characterized by EDX and showed that the zeolite catalyst was analcime type. BET characterization showed that this catalyst has mesoporous surface area. Catalyst application on glycerol dehydration was occurred in fixed-bed stainless steel reactor. This process produced liquid product and analysed by FT-IR. The FT-IR result showed that the liquid product contains acrolein. The variation amount of catalyst in dehydration process affect to the glycerol conversion. The increasing of catalyst amount enhanced glycerol conversion.