Glycerol acetylation over yttrium oxide (Y2O3) catalyst supported on palm kernel shell-derived carbon and parameters optimization studies using response surface methodology (RSM)

A biomass derived carbon supported yttrium oxide catalyst (Y2O3/PKS-T700) was syn-thesized and evaluated in glycerol acetylation reaction using four-factor, two-level face-centred cen-tral composite design (24 CCD) of the response surface methodology (RSM). The catalyst exhibited high glycerol conversion (GC) (99.8%) and product selectivity of 11.1%, 60.2%, and 29.6% mono-acetin (MA), diacetin (DA) and triacetin (TA) under optimized conditions of temperature 130 celcius, glycerol-to-acetic acid molar ratio 1:12 and catalyst loading 0.5 g in 5 h reaction time. The catalyst was synthesized via carbonization of palm kernel shell (PKS), impregnated with 15 wt% yttrium oxide (Y2O3) and calcined appropriately. The synthesized catalyst was further characterized by N2 physisorption analysis (BET surface area), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR), and temperature programmed desorption-ammonia (TPD-NH3). Results revealed that the catalyst is more of mesoporous material with large surface area, good pore volume and average size distributions. It is thermally stable with good acidity