To overcome the problem associated with conventional fuels and the need
for alternative fuels, the production of biodiesel increased and was promoted by
government policies and air pollution-controlled laws. The by-product glycerol
produced from the biodiesel industry is in massive quantity and all of its quantity is not
utilized by the pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, therefore a huge amount of it
is discarded as waste which is a disadvantage of biodiesel production. Hence this led
the researcher to find a new path to utilize it in an environmentally friendly manner and
therefore glycerol is being used to produce solketal which are fuel additives and
enhance the properties of the fuel. Therefore, glycerol is employed as feedstock for the
production of solketal. Generally, batch and continuous processes are used to
synthesize solketal in which the continuous method is the most promising one. Various
catalysts are also employed to increase the yield of solketal from glycerol. Thus, the
reaction of glycerol with dimethyl ketone using various catalysts (homogeneous and
heterogeneous) in different reactors takes place. This chapter gives insight into the
development of biodiesel production and increased usage of propane-1,2,3-triol
(glycerol) into more valuable product solketal using various advanced catalysts. The
synthesis of solketal using continuous process is a vast area and one can find many
more environmentally friendly methods to synthesize it with low cost at industrial and
commercial scale.
Keywords: Biodiesel, Fuel additives, Glycerol, Ketalization, Solketal.
