Reaction Kinetic Study of Solketal Production from Glycerol Ketalization with Acetone

The best conditions for the kinetic study of the ketalization reaction of glycerol with acetone for the production of solketal using zeolite H-BEA (SAR 19) as a catalyst were found through a fractional experimental design. To simplify the heterogeneous kinetics, by means of a smaller number of kinetic parameters to encompass all the kinetic terms toward the products and reagents, a reversible kinetic model was used. From the comparison between the experimental and calculated conversions, it was possible to analyze the accuracy of the estimations, providing a good way to apply statistical treatments to improve the calculated kinetic properties. Thereby, it is possible to calculate the equilibrium constants for a range of reactions performed across different temperatures (40–80 °C) as well as the forward reaction activation energy (44.77 kJ mol –1 ) and the reverse reaction activation energy (41.40 kJ mol –1 ). Moreover, 70–76% glycerol conversion was obtained using the same catalyst for five reactions, without wash or performing any other pretreatments in the catalyst between reactions. The solketal product has been studied as a green industrial solvent additive in gasoline and biofuels.