Abstract:
Crude glycerol is obtained as a by-product from biodiesel production via transesterification. However, it is hard to utilize directly due to its impurity. Therefore, the transformation of glycerol to valuable chemicals is interesting and has been developing continuously. One of the promising products is methanol because it is an important raw material for biodiesel and chemical industries. In this research, the direct methanol synthesis from glycerol was investigated using modified MgO catalysts prepared by wet impregnation method with the various metal oxides loading (CaO, CoO and CuO). It was found that the amount of metal loading equal to 3 wt.% enhanced the surface area, pore size and basicity of all modified MgO catalysts. The response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) with Minitab program was used as a tool in order to study the optimum conditions and significant factors, for sample, glycerol concentration (5-15 wt.%), feed flow rate (0.1-0.3 ml/min), reaction temperature (240-390°C) to the catalytic activity of methanol synthesis in one step. The results showed that the optimum condition was 10 wt.% glycerol concentration and 0.1 ml/min feed flow rate at 330°C. The 3%Ca/MgO catalyst provided glycerol conversion and the highest methanol yield of 75.60% and 16.23%, respectively, and generated by-products including ethanal, ethanol, propanol, 2,3-butanedione, acetol, ethylene glycol, CO, CO2 and H2. Moreover, The 3%Ca/MgO catalyst had high stability over 30 hours using pure glycerol as raw material for methanol synthesis. Meanwhile, the performance of the catalyst was almost unchanged by using crude glycerol at the same condition, which presented glycerol conversion and methanol yield of 87.40% and 16.81%, respectively. It was indicated that the impurities of crude glycerol did not affect to catalytic activity of 3%Ca/MgO catalyst for the direct methanol synthesis. Additionally, the effect of catalyst preparation was also studied by comparing between co-precipitation and wet impregnation method. The results displayed that the 3%Ca/MgO catalyst prepared by co-precipitation had platelet-like structure and its particle size was uniform and higher order than the catalyst prepared by wet impregnation method. The catalyst prepared by co-precipitation showed that the catalytic activity proceeded rapidly to stable and increased the performance in term of glycerol conversion to 95.48%, whereas methanol yield was decreased to 10.85%. The result indicated that the 3%Ca/MgO catalyst prepared by co-precipitation can promote the generation of by-products such as ethanal, ethanol, CO and CO2, leading to decreasing methanol production.