Conversion of glycerol to methanol over copper and nickel supported on HZSM-5 zeolite by hydrothermal process

Abstract

The use of biodiesel nowadays is in highly demand and forecasted to increase steadily in the future. Due to the surplus of glycerol as the major by-product from biodiesel processing, it gain attention to convert glycerol to methanol such a renewable and biodegradable fuel. This study discussed on conversion of glycerol to methanol in a benign environment. The reaction was conducted using hydrothermal process with reaction temperature within 250-380°C, 60-90 min reaction time and various feed concentration. The hydrothermal stability has also been evaluated using modified catalyst. The catalyst used was HZSM-5 zeolites modified by impregnation of Cu and Ni metal. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The catalysts performances have been investigated for glycerol conversion and methanol yield. Under the reaction condition, higher Ni metal loaded was found to show higher methanol yield from glycerol conversion. This study was carried out on the effect of reaction temperature, reaction time and feed concentration where 16 experimental runs were conducted. CuNi-HZSM-5 catalyst was chosen for further tested to determine optimum condition on methanol yield. Optimization of methanol yield from glycerol via Response Surface Methodology (RSM) showed 0.0697 mole of methanol/mole of glycerol reacted was obtained at the optimum reaction temperature 302°C, 59.2 min reaction time and 41.7 wt. % of feed concentration