A preliminary evaluation of the techno-economic feasibility of an industrial glycerol etherification process for bio-additives production has been carried out. The attention has been focused on the etherification reaction in presence of isobutylene (IB) or tert-butanol (TBA) in a batch reactor, catalyzed by an optimized heterogeneous system. Specifically, the Hyflon-based catalyst resulted more efficient and selective to desired products than commercial resin, limiting the competitive reactions of IB oligomerization and byproduct formation. In case of IB, a mixture of poly-ethers, suitable as oxygenated additives for diesel engines, containing very low amount of mono-tert-butylethers (<2 wt.%) was obtained in a single step. This allowed a simplification of the process without the need of separation units and a lower production cost with respect to other reference processes. When TBA was used and water was formed as byproduct, a permeoselective membrane was exploited improving the glycerol conversion and enhancing the poly-ethers productivity by continuous water removal. In fact, very high poly-ethers yield (>85%) was achieved under optimized reaction conditions. The analysis of the whole process demonstrated the techno-economic sustainability of the proposed routes, leading to a production price of glycerol poly-ethers of 1,14 USD/kg and 2,38 USD/kg, by using IB or TBA respectively.

对用于生产生物添加剂的工业甘油醚化工艺的技术经济可行性进行了初步评估。注意力已集中在间歇式反应器中在异丁烯（IB）或叔丁醇（TBA）存在下的醚化反应上，该反应由优化的多相系统催化。具体而言，与商业树脂相比，Hyflon基催化剂对所需产物的反应更有效，选择性更高，从而限制了IB低聚和副产物形成的竞争性反应。在IB的情况下，聚醚混合物适合作为柴油发动机的含氧添加剂，含有非常少量的单叔丁基醚（<2 一步获得）。相对于其他参考方法，这可以简化过程而无需分离单元，并降低了生产成本。当使用TBA并形成水作为副产物时，通过选择渗透膜提高了甘油的转化率，并通过连续除水提高了聚醚的生产率。实际上，在优化的反应条件下，聚醚的收率非常高（> 85％）。对整个过程的分析表明，所提议路线的技术经济可持续性，分别通过使用IB或TBA导致甘油聚醚的生产价格分别为1.14 美元/千克和2.38 美元/千克。