Non-Catalytic and γ-Al2O3 Catalyst-based Degradation of Glycerol by Sonication Method

Ruslan Kalla (Chemical Engineering Department, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111)
Sumarno Sumarno (Chemical Engineering Department, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111)
Mahfud Mahfud (Chemical Engineering Department, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2015: BCREC Volume 10 Issue 3 Year 2015 (December 2015)

This research aims to study the effect of the addition of the catalyst γ-Al2O3 on the degradation of glyc-erol with using sonication method. This degradation reaction performed with the aid of a catalyst γ-Al2O3 or without a catalyst. Reactants were prepared from glycerol-water mixture with a mass ratio of 1:8. Experiment was carried out in a batch reactor at atmospheric pressure, temperature range be-tween 30-70 °C for 10-90 min. The products, which were degraded from glycerol, were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC). The results showed that the ultrasonic wave radiation could degrade glycerol. The glycerol conversion was 2.92%-59.95% without employing catalyst, while the conversion of glycerol increased with adding γ-Al2O3.catalyst. It was found that methanol, allyl alcohol and acrolein were deg-radation products. Copyright © 2015 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).