CATALYTIC CONVERSION OF GLYCEROL AND CRUDE GLYCEROL (BY-PRODUCT FROM BIODIESEL INDUSTRY) TO OXYGENATED FUEL ADDITIVE WITH A CONTINUOUS-FLOW PROCESS

摘要

Due to the booming of biodiesel industry, it was predicted that by 2020 the global production of glycerol will be 41.9 billion liters annually.1 It is thus urgent to develop value-added products to consume the excessive glycerol for the sustainability of biodiesel industry. The direct use of glycerol as fuel is however not encouraged due to its low calorific value, high boiling point and high polarity. It is promising to convert glycerol into ketals (such as solketal in the following scheme) and ethers as oxygenated fuel additives.2 The aquatox fish test requested by the authors’ group on the toxicity of the solketal showed that solketal (with a LC50 for fish to be as high as 3162 ppm) has demonstrated much less environmental toxicity than the common fuel additive Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) with a LC50 1000 ppm.