Production of Solketal Using Acid Zeolites as Catalysts

Commercial solketal is known as Augeo™ SL 191 and is produced by Rhodia (a member of the Solvay Group), which stands out as a slow evaporation solvent derived from glycerin which is considered a renewable source. It has low toxicity to human health and the environment. It is a good solvent for resins and polymers, replacing solvents derived from petroleum, and can be used as an additive of (bio) fuels. This work aimed to study acidy zeolites (H-BEA, H-MOR, H-MFI, and H-FER) as new heterogeneous catalysts of solketal production, through the ketalization reaction of glycerol with acetone. The catalytic activity showed H-BEA > H-MOR = H-MFI > H-FER after 180 min, in kinetics study. The major conversion was 85% for H-BEA. It was also verified that all the catalysts can be reused four times without washing or pretreatment among reactions in batch reactor. The solketal produced in this work was characterized by comparing it with its commercial standard, obtaining very similar characteristics.