SYNTHESIS OF SOLKETAL IN SUPERCRITICAL ACETONE

ROYON, DANIELA; LOCATELLI SILVANO,; GONZO, ELIO EMILIO

JOURNAL OF SUPERCRITICAL FLUIDS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: New York, USA; Año: 2011 vol. 58 p. 88 - 92

0896-8446

ABSTRACT In the last few years, the increasing production of biodiesel has led to an overproduction of glycerol, the main byproduct of this industry. This paper reports the results of the ketalization of glycerol with acetone to give Solketal, an oxygenated compound useful as fuel additive like gasoline and biodiesel or other uses. Synthesis of Solketal from glycerol-acetone mixture, with an excess of acetone as supercritical fluids, was investigated. The experimental results reveal a strong influence on the reaction pathways when critical condition of acetone is reached (Tc : 508 K ), showing a rapid increase of  the reaction rate as the temperature increase up to 533 K where it stabilizes due to the conversion of glycerol to acrolein, a  competing parallel reaction. After that, acrolein polymerized to compounds of low molecular weight because of the high pressure reached in the system. A Research Octane Number (RON) test for 9 % Solketal mixture with 96.3 RON reformate gasoline has shown a value of 113, which become a promising use for this product.