Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.59, No.7, 2805-2816, 2020
Solketal Production in a Fixed Bed Adsorptive Reactor through the Ketalization of Glycerol
Biodiesel production has been generating increasing amounts of glycerol as byproduct, therefore effective strategies are required to convert it into valuable chemicals to enhance the sustainability of the biodiesel production chain. In this work, solketal was synthesized by reacting glycerol with acetone (in the presence of ethanol) in a fixed bed adsorptive reactor packed with Amberlyst-35. Additionally, adsorption equilibrium isotherms for all the compounds of the process were determined at 313 K through a frontal analysis methodology, and the results were fitted through a competitive multicomponent Langmuir model. It was possible to conclude that water was the most adsorbed compound while solketal was the least. The potential for implementation of sorption-enhanced reactive processes was experimentally demonstrated since the conversion values transitorily attained during the solketal synthesis process were approximately 30% above the equilibrium values. Finally, all the experimental results were accompanied by numerical simulation using a comprehensive mathematical model that was able to accurately describe the results.