A Study on Conversion of Glycerol into Solketal Using Rice Husk-Derived Catalyst

Abstract

Glycerol is the primary by-product produced from the first-generation biofuels, i.e., biodiesel. The large-scale production of biodiesel provides an enormous amount of glycerol as a waste stream and is responsible for low market value of glycerol. Hence, there is a need for the conversion of glycerol to accumulate this huge amount of glycerol. Glycerol can be used as a renewable feedstock to produce useful precursors or converted directly into useful derivatives. The conversion of glycerol into solketal, a condensation product, was achieved using acidic catalyst derived from rice husk. The GC obtained for different samples of the reaction at 100 °C for 2 h in a batch reactor confirms the glycerol conversion up to 55% with the catalyst prepared from rice husk biomass with a size >75 μm. The yield of the solketal was observed to be affected by the reaction time, i.e., reaction got completed within 120 min, and after that, there is no appreciable difference in the glycerol conversion. Thus, this could be a good alternative for converting glycerol into valuable product mainly solketal which is an effective ingredient as a fuel additive during blending biodiesel with petroleum diesel.