Synthesis of Biodiesel fuel additive from Glycerol using Cationic ion exchange resin- A review

Dheer A. Rambhia; Sravanthi Veluturla; Archna Narula

Abstract

With the alarming increasing of oil consumption and the number of automotives being instilled, there has been immense research taking place to find a sustainable fuel to replace the current fossil fuels and also not render the current automotives obsolete. The current favorable solution to this is Biodiesel which can be generated either from oil seeds or waste vegetable oils. The selectivity of this process is 90% and the byproduct as glycerol. The synthesis of fuel additive from glycerol can be achieved by various reactions such as acetylation ,etherification and ketalization. A ketalization of glycerol yields 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4-methanol seemed eye catching as Solketal is a fuel additive and can be used to enhance the combustibility of biodiesel produced onsite rather than forming products for another industry. Similarly the acetylation of glycerol yields triacetin, which has a wide application as fuel additive. Heterogeneous catalyst prevents the tedious process of catalyst separation and regeneration. Cationic ion exchange resins maintain their negative charge and attracting the positive charges of the reactant to propagate the reaction. For scaling up the production of fuel additive from glycerol demands the understanding of kinetics. Hence this paper discusses about the the kinetic studies undertaken and the various kinetic models developed for the production of fuel additives. The understanding of various kinetics enables us to know which reaction is favourable at particular conditions. Understanding the kinetics of the suitable reaction for the available conditions helps in efficient setting up of the process.Keywords: Biodiesel, Glycerol, Cationic ion exchange resins, Fuel additive,Kinetics.