Ordered mesoporous zirconium silicates as a catalyst for biofuel precursors synthesis

Abstract Zirconium incorporated three-dimensional ordered mesoporous silica (FDU-5) catalysts with different Si/Zr (100, 50 and 25) ratios were synthesized using an Evaporation Induced Self Assembly (EISA) method to maximize the incorporation of zirconium sites in the silica framework. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized materials were characterized by several techniques such as XRD, N2 sorption, diffuse reflectance UV–Vis, TEM, ammonia TPD, ICP-OES and pyridine adsorbed FT-IR. The catalytic activity was evaluated in acid-catalyzed esterification of glycerol with acetic acid. The effects of different reaction parameters were studied to optimize the maximum yields, such as reaction temperature, catalyst loading, acid/alcohol molar ratio, and reaction time. Esterification of glycerol with levulinic acid and levulinic acid with ethanol was also performed to synthesize fuel precursors. Reaction results showed that the prepared Zr-FDU-5(25) material was a very high catalytic activity, which depended mostly on the zirconium species' availability on the surfaces and framework. This zirconium containing FDU-5 material was very active in the esterification reaction and selective product formation at certain reaction conditions. The selected catalyst was recycled five times without significant loss in its activity.