Abstract
Abundantly available natural material, sepiolite was used in combination with KF to develop a transesterification catalyst and used to synthesize glycidol from glycerol and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) in a one step reaction. The composition of the sepiolite determined by X-ray florescence (XRF) makes it a unique candidate for transesterification of glycerol as most of its components have previously been used either in combinations or singly as catalyst for transesterification reactions. Other characterizations of the developed 30%KF/sepiolite catalyst were done by XRD, BET, and FTIR. The optimum reaction conditions of the KF/sepiolite catalyst on transesterification of glycerol with DMC were obtained at 85 degrees C reaction temperature, 2:1 DMC/glycerol, 4% by weight catalyst loading and 90 min reaction time. The developed catalyst can be reused up to four cycles with a minimal reduction in its efficiency in transesterification activities. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.