Kinetics Modeling of Glycerol Carbonate Synthesis from Glycerol and Urea over Amberlyst-15 Catalyst

Abstract

Synthesize of glycerol carbonate from glycerol and urea is an attractive path as glycerol carbonate has a large potential as a green solvent. The aim of the present study was to develop a kinetic model of glycerol carbonate synthesis with amberlyst-15 resins as a catalyst. The investigation was carried out at various temperatures from 353 to 383 K and catalyst loading from 0.25 to 1 wt.% of glycerol. The experimental results indicated that both temperature and catalyst loading have an important effect on the glycerol conversion. According to the experimental result, the highest glycerol conversion was found 36.90% which was obtained using a molar ratio of urea to glycerol 1:3, catalyst loading of 1 wt.%, stirrer speed of 700 rpm, the temperature of 383 K and reaction time of 5 h. A kinetic model was developed based on elementary steps that take place over the catalyst. The model estimated that the pre-exponential factor was 2.89.104 mol.g–1.min–1 and the activation energy was 50.5 kJ.mol–1. By comparing the simulation and experimental data, it could be inferred that the model could predict the trend of experimental data well over the range of temperature and catalyst loading investigated in the present study.

Kinetic Studies of the Glycerolysis of Urea to Glycerol Carbonate in the Presence of Amberlyst-15 as Catalyst

“…Lertlukkanasuk et al [15] studied the reactive distillation of urea glycerolysis in the presence of Co3O4/ZnO catalyst and proposed a kinetics model based on reversible reaction of urea and glycerol. Sulistyo et al [16] developed a kinetics model based on elementary steps based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood in urea glycerolysis over Amberlist-15 catalyst.…”

“…Fernandes and Yadav [3] developed a kinetics model on glycerol carbonate formation using Magnesium Oxide as catalyst in which the Langmuir Hinshelwood Hougen Watson (LHHW) model was used with surface active as basic and acidic sites on the catalyst surface for adsorption of glycerol and urea. Sulistyo et al [16] investigated the reaction rate mechanism for heterogeneous catalytic reaction of glycerol carbonate synthesis from glycerol and urea in the presence of amberlyst-15 as a catalyst. The proposed kinetics model was developed and validated by assuming that the elementary steps was based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism [16].…”

“…Sulistyo et al [16] investigated the reaction rate mechanism for heterogeneous catalytic reaction of glycerol carbonate synthesis from glycerol and urea in the presence of amberlyst-15 as a catalyst. The proposed kinetics model was developed and validated by assuming that the elementary steps was based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism [16]. There have been limited studies concerned on the development of kinetics studies based on assumption of that urea glyceroysis occurs by simultaneous step of mass transfer, diffusion and reaction in the surface active catalyst.…”