Synthesis of bio-additive fuels from glycerol acetalization over a heterogeneous Ta/W mixed addenda heteropolyacid catalyst

The heterogeneous heteropolyacid-catalyzed acetalization of glycerol with acetone was investigated under solvent-free conditions. In this work, the calcined Ta/W mixed addenda heteropolyacid catalyst ({H20}-355) was employed as a solid acid catalyst and showed much higher activity than these soluble Keggin-type catalysts in the acetalization of glycerol with acetone due to its superacidity (H0 = −12.95). Meanwhile, it showed high stability in catalytic recycles and extended for acetalization of glycerol with the other aldehydes and ketones. Based on the catalyst characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 31P NMR spectra, FT-IR spectra, pyridine-absorbed FT-IR, and Hammett acidity functions (H0) by UV–vis spectroscopy, it was found that the acidic strength of the Ta/W mixed addenda heteropolyacid was highly dependent on the contents of crystalline water that could be tuned by calcination temperature. Notably, the solid superacid catalyst {H20}-355 was swollen by acetone, exhibiting an interesting “pseudo-liquid” behavior, which served as a microreactor and facilitated the reaction. Furthermore, after the acetalization reaction of glycerol with furfural (98% yield of acetal) on {H20}-355 catalyst, the furan ring of the acetal products can be hydrogenated sequentially into dioxolane or dioxane with Pd/C catalyst under room temperature condition without the need of any isolation procedure.