Synthesis of Solketal: A Potent Fuel Additive from A Glycerol, A By-Product of Biodiesel Industries

To overcome the problem associated with conventional fuels and the need for alternative fuels, the production of biodiesel increased and was promoted by government policies and air pollution-controlled laws. The by-product glycerol produced from the biodiesel industry is in massive quantity and all of its quantity is not utilized by the pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, therefore a huge amount of it is discarded as waste which is a disadvantage of biodiesel production. Hence this led the researcher to find a new path to utilize it in an environmentally friendly manner and therefore glycerol is being used to produce solketal which are fuel additives and enhance the properties of the fuel. Therefore, glycerol is employed as feedstock for the production of solketal. Generally, batch and continuous processes are used to synthesize solketal in which the continuous method is the most promising one. Various catalysts are also employed to increase the yield of solketal from glycerol. Thus, the reaction of glycerol with dimethyl ketone using various catalysts (homogeneous and heterogeneous) in different reactors takes place. This chapter gives insight into the development of biodiesel production and increased usage of propane-1,2,3-triol (glycerol) into more valuable product solketal using various advanced catalysts. The synthesis of solketal using continuous process is a vast area and one can find many more environmentally friendly methods to synthesize it with low cost at industrial and commercial scale.