Development of a Novel Hydrophobic ZrO2–SiO2 Based Acid Catalyst for Catalytic Esterification of Glycerol with Oleic Acid
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Abstract
The inevitably low value of glycerol has led to extensive investigations on glycerol conversion to value-added derivatives. The esterification of glycerol with oleic acid is currently a very important industrial process. In this work, a novel heterogeneous acid catalyst featuring hydrophobic surface is developed on modified ZrO2-SiO2 support as water-tolerant solid acid catalyst is vital for biphasic esterification reactions that produce water. The novel ZrO2-SiO2-Me&Et-PhSO3H catalyst was prepared through silication and surface modification with trimethoxymethylsilane and 2-(4-chlorosulfonylphenyl)ethyltrimethoxysilane. This work showed that it is possible to control the acidity and hydrophobicity of the catalyst by tailoring the amount of surface modification agents. It was found that the hydrophobicity of the catalyst decreased as its acidity increased. Furthermore, at constant catalyst acidity, the more hydrophobic catalyst showed a better yield.
Keywords
Catalytic esterification, Esterification reactions, Glycerol conversions, Heterogeneous acid catalysts, Hydrophobic catalysts, Solid acid catalysts, Surface modification agents, Trimethoxymethylsilane
Divisions
fac_eng
Publication Title
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume
57
Issue
29
Publisher
American Chemical Society