Triacetin Synthesis as Bio-Additive from Glycerol Using Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysts

Abstract

The government tries to anticipate the needs of fuel in Indonesia. Efforts to develop new fuels have also been done. New fuels and renewable energy that has been developed are water, wind, bioenergy, solar, ocean, and geothermal. Bioenergy which now widely developed is biodiesel. The development of biodiesel industry which has increased rapidly, was accompanied by government policies that are written in the blueprint of the national energy management, make the biodiesel production grow rapidly. Glycerol as a by-product of the biodiesel industry is available abundantly, so it is necessary to study alternative uses. One alternative is to process glycerol into triacetin which can be used as bio-additive. The reaction between glycerol and acetic acid using a batch reactor was done ​​on the mole ratio of catalyst/glycerol of 3.0%, the mole ratio of acetic acid/glycerol of 3/1, reaction temperature of 80-110°C and reaction time of 60 minutes. The optimum condition is achieved when the batch reaction was run with catalyst Amberlyst-15 at temperature of 110°C with conversion of 97.52% and selectivity triacetin of 89.74%.