Can Glycerol Carbonate be Synthesized Without a Catalyst?

Abstract: Biodiesel and oleo-chemical industries have been producing huge quantities of glycerol as a by-product. Value-added products can be synthesized from glycerol through different chemical and enzymatic reactions, such as oxidation, carbonylation, reforming, acetalyzation, etherification, dehydration, hydrogenolysis, hydrolysis, esterification, and transesterification. Glycerol is a low-cost polyol that can be converted into glycerol carbonate, which has potential applications in polymer and biobased non-isocyanate polyurethanes industries (Bio-NIPUs). The present contribution is the first of its kind to report on the synthesis of glycerol carbonate via catalyst and solvent-free transesterification of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate under conventional as well as microwave heating. Additionally, a comparative study of conventional and microwave-assisted transesterification was performed. Under conventional heating, 78% glycerol carbonate is obtained at 120oC in 36 hours, whereas, using microwaves, 92% of glycerol carbonate can be achieved in 30 minutes. Presently, biomass-based heterogeneous materials are used in catalysis due to their importance within the context of sustainability. In line with this, in this work, a series of green catalysts, namely, molecular sieves (MS, 4Å), Hβ- Zeolite, Montmorillonite K-10 clay, activated carbon prepared from the shell of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), and biochar from sawdust pyrolysis were successfully employed. Glycerol carbonate was thoroughly characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, FT-IR and MS. The method described here is facile and green since the utilization of bioresource (glycerol) for the production of glycerol carbonate is performed under microwave.