Characterization and Testing of Zeolite Y Dealuminate Catalysts for Glycerol Conversion to Glycerol Mono Laurate

This Research has been done to analyze Zeolite Y CBV 712 as a catalyst. Some method used in order to treat the zeolite such as dealumination and X-ray Diffraction to analyze the crystallinity. Zeolite Y CBV 712 was dealuminated by treating it with H2SO4 solution, with 3-8 M concentration at 40-60 degrees C. The dealumination treatment runs for 4 hours. Then, dealuminated zeolite was calcinated with a furnace for 3 hours with temperature range between 500-600 degrees C. Dealuminated zeolit Y then tested to synthesize Glycerol Mono Laurate (GML). Dealumination affect to increase the ratio of Si/A, caused by removing of aluminium. H2SO4 as acid represents the content of free fatty acids produced from the glycerol synthesize and also the main parameters that reflect the catalyst activity. Crystallinity of zeolite was identified by X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the increasing crystallinity percentage represents the higher acid conversion. However, the increasing of crystallinity defines decreasing of the GML conversion from 45.17% to 34.98% and decreasing of the conversion Glycerol Di Laurate (GDL) also from 31.68% to 20.32%. On other hand, Glycerol Tri Laurate (GTL) had different results. The more crystallinity caused the increasing conversion to GTL from 9.07% to 20.32%. The results indicated that the increasing of crystallinity of zeolite caused the decreasing of the conversion to GML and GDL, except for GTL.