Solketal Reaction Optimization by Glycerol Acetalization Using Amberlyst-36 Catalyst

Glycerol is an important chemical and widely used in many applications. Glycerol can be produced from a biodiesel industry as a by-product. In order to improve the economic value of glycerol as a by-product, it can be reacted with acetone to form solketal. Solketal can be used as a fuel additive to increase octane number. Reaction between glycerol and acetone can be catalyzed by Amberlyst-36. The objective of present study was to investigate the effect of mole ratio of glycerol:acetone and reaction temperature to the glycerol conversion. The process of acetalization was conducted in a batch reactor equipped with heater, temperature control, cooler and stirrer. The weight of catalyst was set on 5% based mass of glycerol and the stirrer speed was set on 650 rpm with reaction time of 3 hours. The mole ratio of glycerol to acetone was varied at 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:6, and the temperatures were varied on 40, 50 and 55 °C. The results showed that the highest conversion was 86.61 %, which was obtained at 120 minutes reaction, 50 °C and 1:6 mole ratio.