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Synthesis of ethyl glyceryl ethers from catalyzed glycerol acid and ethanol to develop bio-additives to improve fuel characteristics

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Abstract

The etherification of glycerol with ethanol is a novel process to utilize low-value by-product (glycerol) of the biodiesel industry. Herein, glycerol ethers are utilized as a solvent or fuel additive. Its production will be in stages. In the first stage, bioethanol production has been achieved with a volumetric concentration of 96% from a cheap source, which is dates, especially the type called Zuhdi, which is available in large quantities in Iraq. This ethanol produced in the etherification process is used to produce glycerol diethyl ether. Then, the next step is to determine whether mixing the generated glycerol ether with gasoline will increase its octane rating (Al-Doura Refinery Gasoline in Iraq). In the current study, the ethanol–glycerol to strong acid ion exchange resin (CER) process is carried out, where CER is used as the solid acid for the etherification process. Glycerol ether and ethanol were conducted at 120–150 °C in a batch reactor with and without CER, and the final pressures were observed to be around 14–18 bar. The products from the reaction process were glycerol triethyl ether (GTEE), glycerol diethyl ether (GDEE), diethyl ether (DIEE), and glycerol monoethyl ether (GMEE). The current findings show that when the ratio of ethanol to glycerol in the reaction mixture increased, the amount of glycerol converted to ethanol decreased. Besides, the conversion of the reactants witnessed a slight decrease with increasing pressure. Finally, the excellent component mixtures obtained from the previous results are G-PCM10 due to the recommended increase in RON concentration. G-PCM10 was a prepared pool octane booster.

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  1. Faculty of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Razi University, 67144-14971, Kermanshah, Iran

    Ehsan Hashem Soltan & Farshad Rahimpour

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  1. Ehsan Hashem Soltan
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  2. Farshad Rahimpour
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Correspondence to Farshad Rahimpour.

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Soltan, E.H., Rahimpour, F. Synthesis of ethyl glyceryl ethers from catalyzed glycerol acid and ethanol to develop bio-additives to improve fuel characteristics. Chem. Pap. 77, 6669–6678 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-023-02967-1

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