Reactive pervaporation for valorisation of glycerol as glycerol carbonate
(2022) Euromembrane Conference 2022 — Location: Sorrento, Naples, Italy (20.November.2022)
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- Authors
Hartanto, Yusak 
- Abstract
- Glycerol carbonate (GC) production plays an indispensable role in the valorisation of glycerol, which is a by-product of the production of biodiesels [1, 2]. The transesterification reaction of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate (DMC) produces glycerol carbonate and methanol (MeOH) as by-product. The purification of GC requires significant energy and capital cost [3] since DMC and MeOH can form an azeotropic mixture at different concentrations under different pressures because excess DMC is generally added in this reaction for higher glycerol conversion. In addition, this transesterification reaction is a reversible reaction limited by the equilibrium and it is typically performed at high temperature (100°C). In order to further reduce energy demands and achieve sustainable development, reactive pervaporation at low temperature (60°C) is proposed in this work as a better choice compared to traditional distillation[4]. Reactive pervaporation is a hybrid process combining reaction and separation in one single setup. While the reaction is taking place, MeOH is separated by a MeOH-selective membrane, shifting the reaction equilibrium to a higher glycerol carbonate yield. Results show that at 60°C, not only a higher conversion rate of glycerol can be obtained by reactive pervaporation, but also the amount of DMC used can be reduced, thus reducing significant energy and capital cost in the separation and purification stage. Thus, reactive pervaporation is presented as a potential technology that allows advancing towards a greener production of glycerol carbonate.
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Citations
Xu, X., Hartanto, Y., & Luis Alconero, P. (2022). Reactive pervaporation for valorisation of glycerol as glycerol carbonate. Euromembrane Conference 2022, Sorrento, Naples, Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/103342