(260b) Glycerol Carbonate from Glycerol and Urea Using Heterogeneous Catalysis

Colombia is a producer biodiesel country mainly by transesterification and several investigations had been carried out in the search for new uses for the glycerin as raw material. Glycerol carbonate is a neoteric solvent with diverse uses as intermediate species for other chemical production. In the present work the production of glycerol carbonate using glycerin and urea was investigated, using heterogeneous catalysis. The several reactions used to obtain glycerol carbonate was evaluated to determinate the atoms economy, a preliminary analysis of the chemical fate of the reactants and products was carry out using EPIWEB 4.1.
Two types of catalysts were tested: supported catalysts ( CuO/ϒAl2O3), distribution and ZnO/ ϒAl2O3, both with shell egg distribution. The catalytic support and the final catalysts were characterized by area BET, TGA, FTIR The catalytic test were made in a batch reactor varying the urea/ glycerin ratio and temperature. A experimental design was used in this research.