Currently, solketal is produced from glycerol and acetone by using heterogeneous catalyst. However, a solid heterogeneous catalyst is not preferable since water contained in the glycerol, is adsorbed on the surface of the catalyst. Water could act as inhibitor in the reaction and lowering the activity of the catalyst. Therefore, homogenous acid catalyst is proposed to avoid the inhibition during the reaction. The aim of this research was to utilize sulphuric acid as the homogenous acid catalyst, to explore the effect of the mole ratio glycerol:acetone to the conversion, and determine the entrophy and entaphy of the reaction . The process was carried out in a three neck reactor equipped with a heater, temperature control, cooler and stirrer. The reaction conditions were set at a constant boiling temperature, the reaction time was varied at 4 - 12 h, and the mole ratio of acetone to glycerol was varied in the range of 2:1 - 7: 1. Results indicated that the highest conversion (>80 %) was recorded at 62°C, 10 h, and 6.9:1 mole ratio. The conversion of glycerol to solketal was influenced by mole ratio which is consistent to Lecatelier principle. From the entropy ΔS =280.02 J. mole K−1) and enthalpy ΔH= 95.948 J. mole−1), it can be concluded that the reaction of solketal formation was exothermic.
Alginate is a naturally occurring anionic carbohydrate polymer which could be coupled with metallic cationic molecules to form heterogeneous catalyst. However, the potency of the heterogeneous catalyst on the production of solketal was not explored. This research was proposed to investigate the potency of Ferri-Alginate (Fe-Alg) as a cheap and environmentally friendly catalyst in the solketal reaction. Fe-Alg was synthesized by reacting FeCl3 to sodium alginate with different concentrations (0.1 -0.5 M). Fe-Alg catalyst was characterized both on the physical and chemical activity. By using BET analysis, it was indicated that the addition of FeCl3 concentration increased the surface area of the catalyst. By using TGA/DSC analysis, it was found that Fe-Alg catalyst was stable up to 153°C. From GC/MS analysis, it was found that solketal was formed after the reaction of glycerol and acetone by using Fe-Alg as the catalyst.
A catalyst is a chemical that can accelerate a reaction. So far, the catalyst uses precious metals (Pt, Au, Ag) which are heavy and expensive metals. In this research, a biodegradable Aluminum-Alginate (Al-Alg) green catalyst was synthesized using the precipitation method at room temperature. Aluminum is derived from Al (NO3)3 solution, and the Alginate used is brown algae extract in the form of Sodium-Alginate (Na-Alg). Previous research has reported that Aluminum-Alginate (Al-Alg) has been shown to accelerate the esterification reaction. In this research, Al-Alg was tried as a catalyst in the reaction of Solketal formation from Acetone and Glycerol. The purpose of this research is to prove the Al-Alg catalyst that has been synthesized using the precipitation method which can be used as a catalyst in the reaction of Solketal formation from Acetone and Glycerol. The research was carried out in two stages, namely the extraction of Alginate from brown algae using 2% by weight natrium-alginate solvent, then the second stage was the deposition of Na-Alginate using Al (NO3)3 solution. The precipitation was carried out at room temperature. The precipitate was dried, then its physical characteristicwas tested using FTIR and TGA/DTA; the chemical characteristic of the catalyst was tested through catalyzed reaction. The FTIR test results showed that the alginate molecule had been bound to Al molecule which was marked by a peak at the wave number of 1383.4 cm−1 which indicated the carboxylic group of COOH owned by Alginate, namely the symmetric stretching vibration of the carboxylate group. In addition, the peak at the wave number of 827 cm−1 showed that the C1 – H deformation vibration of b- mannuronic acid residues from Alginate. The peak at the wave number of 550 cm−1 proved that Aluminum (Al) had been bound to Alginate, and forming Al-Alg. The catalyst activity test was carried out by applying the Al-Alg catalyst in the catalyzing reaction of the formation of Solketal from Acetone and Glycerol. The reaction results were analyzed using GC-MS and it showed that the solketal was formed, and the selectivity was quite high at 96 %, proving that Al-Alg had the potential as a catalyst in catalyzing reaction.
Skim is a major by-product of the virgin coconut oil (VCO) industry consisting of nutrients and is currently discharged to the environment as waste. Hence, this research aimed to utilize skim as a medium for Botryococcus braunii and Chlorella vulgaris growth. The effect of organic carbon resourced from glucose and glycerol on biomass was also investigated at certain concentrations with intervals 100:0 to 0:100 (%). Results indicated that Botryococcus braunii and Chlorella vulgaris cultivated under 20% VCO mill effluent gave the highest biomass production, which accounts for 1.69 g/L and 5.34 g/L; 89.40% and 86.70% COD reduction efficiency. Whereas, mixotrophic condition showed a positive trend for Botryococcus braunii at 80:20 (glucose:glycerol) with 5.60 g/L biomass production and 97.64% COD removal efficiency. Vice versa, the addition of glucose:glycerol gave an inhibitory impact on Chlorella vulgaris as the biomass production was merely 1.66 g/L with COD efficiency 94.03%.
Energy is a need of society and industry which is increasing every year. However, the world's oil reserves continue to run low, so the development of renewable alternative energy is needed. One of the new renewable energies that can be developed is vegetable fuel or biofuel. Biodiesel which is a type of biofuel is being widely produced recently. The cetane number determines the quality of biodiesel. Solketal is an additive added to biodiesel to increase the cetane number. The ketonation reaction was used in this study to obtain the solketal. In the manufacture of solketal a catalyst is needed to speed up the reaction and increase conversion. Phosphotungstic Woifram Acid (PWA) is a heterogeneous catalyst chosen because it can be separated from solution. Based on the results of the study, the optimal time for making solketal was 4 hours and the highest solketal conversion was at a reaction temperature of 60oC with a constant reactant mole ratio of 1:3:1 and a percentage of 2% catalyst, which was 66.7%.
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