Mesoporous catalyst CaO/γ-Al2O3 for selective conversion of glycerol to lactic acid
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Zahira Binti Mohamed Malik
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Abstract
In recent years, the growth of biodiesel industry increases rapidly in Malaysia and has generated a surplus of crude glycerol as the primary co-product. Based on the current condition, the conversion of glycerol to higher value-added chemicals like lactic acid has spark interest in many researchers to sustain the economics of the biodiesel industry. In this present project, supported catalyst of CaO/ γ-Al2O3 was synthesized with different CaO loadings (4,7,11 and 14 wt. %) and calcination at optimum temperature of 700 °C. The characterization of synthesized catalysts was conducted by means of BET surface analysis, SEM and EDX. The characteristics of the catalysts were correlated with the catalytic activity based on the glycerol conversion and lactic acid yield. It was found that high yield of lactic acid was identified by using 14 CaO/γ-Al2O3 catalyst which was prepared using 40 wt % of calcium acetate and calcined at 700°C in the production of lactic acid from glycerol. The reaction for all catalyst was conducted at 10 wt. % of catalyst loading, a reaction temperature of 290°C and a reaction time of 2 h. For this project, 14 CaO/ γ-Al2O3 catalyst showed good catalyst activity as it produced the highest yield of lactic acid but still further research needs to be conducted to determine the limiting CaO loading. Overall, CaO/γ-Al2O3 catalyst showed good activity and it is an active catalyst that is suitable to be used in the reaction involving glycerol.