Catalysing sustainable fuel and chemical synthesis

Concerns over the economics of proven fossil fuel reserves, in concert with government and public acceptance of the anthropogenic origin of rising CO2 emissions and associated climate change from such combustible carbon, are driving academic and commercial research into new sustainable routes to fuel and chemicals. The quest for such sustainable resources to meet the demands of a rapidly rising global population represents one of this century’s grand challenges. Here, we discuss catalytic solutions to the clean synthesis of biodiesel, the most readily implemented and low cost, alternative source of transportation fuels, and oxygenated organic molecules for the manufacture of fine and speciality chemicals to meet future societal demands

Catalytic production of oxygenated additives by glycerol etherification

Abstract In this work the etherification reaction of glycerol with isobutene (IB) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) has been studied with the aim of preparing mixtures with high content of poly-substituted ethers. The results obtained using solid acid catalysts have shown that the reaction with IB proceeds at a high rate but the formation of undesired di-isobutene (DIB) represents a serious problem when catalysts with high density of acid sites, such as Amberlyst, are used. When using TBA as a reactant, the main problem is the formation of water that, due to thermodynamic reasons, prevents the formation of poly-substituted ethers regardless of the catalyst used. Some preliminary experiments carried out with a water permselective tubular membrane have demonstrated that the yield of poly-substituted ethers significantly increases once water was selectively removed from the reaction medium by recirculation of the gas phase