Synthesis of acetylglycerols over hierarchical porous sulfonated polymeric solid acid

Biodiesel is a sustainable and renewable fuel, which is popularly recommended as a substitute for traditional fossil resources. However, the rapidly growing production of biodiesel in past decades has brought the formation of surplus glycerol. In this work, glycerol-derived acetins were synthesized via transesterification of glycerol with methyl acetate over a hierarchical porous polymeric solid acid catalyst (hSPB-x) which was prepared in a facile method. It was found that hSPB-2 was highly active and stable for this transesterification reaction. The highest yield of acetylglycerols reached 126.1 g-acetins/g-cat/h at 100 degrees C, while the turnover frequency of acid sites in hSPB-2 attained 330.1 h-1 at the beginning of the reaction. And hSPB-2 was stable for 5-time recycles without obvious deactivation. Characterization results indicated that the excellent performance of hSPB-2 could be attributed to its high acidity (2.77 mmol/g), large surface area (872 m2/g), regular hierarchical pore channels, and good thermal stability.