Process intensification: New technologies (SMBR and PermSMBR) for the synthesis of acetals

A Review on the Catalytic Acetalization of Bio-renewable Glycerol to Fuel Additives

The last 20 years have seen an unprecedented breakthrough in the biodiesel industry worldwide leads to abundance of glycerol. Therefore, the economic utilization of glycerol to various value-added chemicals is vital for the sustainability of the biodiesel industry. One of the promising processes is acetalization of glycerol to acetals and ketals for applications as fuel additives. These products could be obtained by acid-catalyzed reaction of glycerol with aldehydes and ketones. Application of different supported heterogeneous catalysts such as zeolites, heteropoly acids, metal-based and acid-exchange resins have been evaluated comprehensively in this field. In this review, the glycerol acetalization has been reported, focusing on innovative and potential technologies for sustainable production of solketal. In addition, the impacts of various parameters such as application of different reactants, reaction temperature, water removal, utilization of crude-glycerol on catalytic activity in both batch and continuous processes are discussed. The outcomes of this research will therefore significantly improve the technology required in tomorrow's bio-refineries. This review provides spectacular opportunities for us to use such renewables and will consequently benefit the industry, environment and economy.

Potential of Pervaporation and Vapor Separation with Water Selective Membranes for an Optimized Production of Biofuels—A Review

The development of processes based on the integration of new technologies is of growing interest to industrial catalysis. Recently, significant efforts have been focused on the design of catalytic membrane reactors to improve process performance. In particular, the use of membranes, that allow a selective permeation of water from the reaction mixture, positively affects the reaction evolution by improving conversion for all reactions thermodynamically or kinetically limited by the presence of water. In this paper, how pervaporation (PV) and vapor permeation (VP) technologies can improve the catalytic performance of reactions of industrial interest is considered. Specifically, technological approaches proposed in the literature are discussed with the aim of highlighting advantages and problems encountered in order to address research towards the optimization of membrane reactor configurations for liquid biofuel production in large scale.