Bioadditives synthesis from selective glycerol esterification over acidic ion exchange resin as catalyst

In this work, fuel bioadditives production from glycerol esterification with acetic acid was performed over acidic ion exchange resin as acid catalyst in a batch reactor. The influence of several parameters such as temperature, molar ratio of acetic acid to glycerol and catalyst loading on glycerol conversion and product distribution were evaluated following an experimental design. Additionally, the process variables were optimized applying response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). High glycerol conversion (99.6%) and elevated selectivity towards the interest products triacetylglycerol (TAG=34%) and diacetylglycerol+ triacetylglycerol mixture (DAG+ TAG= 88%) were reached at 240 min of reaction time using 4 wt.% catalyst concentration, 393 K reaction temperature and 9: 1 molar ratio of acetic acid to glycerol. Also, the catalyst was reusable in five catalytic cycles without regeneration and no leaching of the active species was detected.