The effect of concentration and acid types on the acidification process for improving the glycerol concentration and its application as a bio additive

Abstract The rise of biodiesel production resulted in an increase in the formation of glycerol as a by-product. It takes some effort to purified the crude glycerol and convert it into more valuable product. One of these is by converting glycerol into triacetin which can be used as a bio additive in fuel through the acetylation process. This study aims to determine the effect of concentration and type of acid used in the glycerol purification. The purification were done by acidification, adsorption, filtration, distillation and evaporation. The acidification processes used H 3 PO 4 , H 2 SO 4 , HCl with percentage of 0.5%, 1%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%. The purified glycerol was analyzed to determine glycerol content, water content, density and viscosity and converted through acetylation reaction using Ni/Zeolite as a catalyst. The reaction products were analyzed by NaOH titration to determine the unreacted acetic acid which is converted into conversion of reaction. It can be concluded that the highest glycerol concentration was achieved in the addition 5% of H 3 PO 4 with glycerol content of 79.59% and glycerol conversion in acetylation reaction of 82.39%. And its application as a bio additive can increase the Octane Number of commercial gasoline by 6.5%.