Sustainable synthesis of automobile fuel additive from glycerol and acetone and catalyst reusability studies.

The present study examined the production of Solketal, a gasoline additive, using glycerol and acetone. For the ketalization experiments, a potential cation exchange resin Ceralite IR-120 was utilized. The effect of agitation speed, temperature, catalyst dosage, and feed composition on the rate of glycerol conversion was studied. For a molar ratio of 1:16 between glycerol and acetone, the experimental results indicated a conversion rate greater than 90%. The experimental studies indicate low mass transfer resistances. The activation energy for the chemical reaction was calculated to be 54.34 kJ/mol, indicating that kinetics rather than thermodynamics dominates this process. A pseudo-homogeneous reaction model that characterizes the acetalization process over the catalyst also concurred with the experimentally determined conversion rate. Catalyst reusability studies showed catalytic activity for up to six recycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]