Synthesis of Oxygenated Fuel Additives from Glycerol

JORGE SEPULVEDA; MARIANA BUSTO; CARLOS R. VERA; MARAISA GONCALVES; WAGNER CARVALHO; DALMO MANDELLI

Biofuels - Status and Perspective

InTech

Año: 2015; p. 499 - 515

A survey of the literature on the esterification and etherification of glycerol shows that most contributions deal with either commercial catalysts (resins, zeolites) or promoted inorganic oxides. Only a small attention has been devoted to the group of functionalized carbons. In this work we study the activity and selectivity of functionalized carbon materials (sulfonated activated carbon, sulfonated multiwalled nanotubes, activated carbon supported molybdophosphoric acid) in the esterification and etherification of glycerol. The results are compared with those obtained with a commercial acid resin (Amberlite 15W). The focus is put on demonstrating the feasibility of using these carbon materials of tunable properties (acid amount, porosity, acid strength) as a replacement of commercial supports and on elucidating the role of some process variables such as temperature and reactants ratios on the activity and selectivity to the desired products.