Abstract The aim of this work was to optimize the reaction parameters for the glycerol etherification with ethanol in a fixed bed pressurized reactor using Amberlyst 15 as a catalyst. A three factor central composite design was proposed to study the effect of reaction temperature (180–250 °C), ethanol/glycerol molar ratio (4–20/1) and amount of catalyst (0–0.80 g) over the glycerol conversion and yield of ethers. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the significance of the independent variables and their interactions. The correlations between reaction parameters and response variables were made by regression models. Among the variables screened, the reaction temperature and catalyst amount were statistically significant in glycerol conversion and ethers yield. The optimum levels of the parameters on yield of ethers were: temperature (238 °C), ethanol/glycerol molar ratio (16/1) and catalyst amount (0.61 g). Experimental verification of the predicted optimum conditions for yield of ethers gave the unprecedented response of 56%. These results indicated that the models were capable in describing the actual experimental data. Therefore, a process using a fixed bed high-pressure reactor has the potential to be used in glycerol transformation into ethers.

中文翻译：

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甘油与乙醇在高压下固定床反应器中醚化的研究

摘要 本工作的目的是优化在固定床加压反应器中使用 Amberlyst 15 作为催化剂与乙醇进行甘油醚化反应的反应参数。提出了三因素中心复合设计来研究反应温度 (180–250 °C)、乙醇/甘油摩尔比 (4–20/1) 和催化剂量 (0–0.80 g) 对甘油转化率和醚的产率。方差分析 (ANOVA) 用于评估自变量及其相互作用的显着性。反应参数和响应变量之间的相关性通过回归模型进行。在筛选的变量中，反应温度和催化剂用量在甘油转化率和醚产率方面具有统计学意义。醚收率参数的最佳水平为：温度 (238 °C)、乙醇/甘油摩尔比 (16/1) 和催化剂量 (0.61 g)。对醚产率预测的最佳条件的实验验证给出了前所未有的 56% 的响应。这些结果表明该模型能够描述实际的实验数据。因此，使用固定床高压反应器的工艺有可能用于将甘油转化为醚。