Acetalization of pure and biodiesel by-product glycerol with butyraldehyde

Abstract

Biodiesel synthesis by transesterification reaction of oils and fats with methanol is an attractive alternative for petroleum based fuels. Glycerol is obtained as by-product from transesterification reaction and its amount is ? 10 wt % of the total biodiesel production. The acetalization of pure and by-product glycerol with butyraldehyde in the presence of heterogeneous catalyst was investigated. The effects of different parameters on the aldehyde conversion were studied for the use of both pure and by-product glycerol. The aldehyde conversion in the by-product glycerol reaction was lower than that in the pure glycerol reaction due to the presence of impurities. Stirring speed and catalyst particle size, i.e., mass transfer limitations, were not significant for both pure and by-product glycerol. On the other hand, temperature had a positive effect on both of the reactions. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering-7 and 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA (Prague, Czech Republic 8/28/2010-9/1/2010).