Synthesis of glycerol carbonate from glycerin with CaCO₃ in a batch reactor

Abstract

In the present work, a reaction methodology was implemented using a batch reactor, which synthesized glycerol carbonate (GC) using glycerin and CaCO₃. A crystallographic analysis of CaCO₃ was performed to determine its crystalline form. The obtained product was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H and ¹³C). Our analysis demonstrated that the obtained product with the implemented reaction methodology has GC, FTIR showed the signals of the carbonyl groups, and the NMR spectrum confirmed the presence of cyclic carbonate structure in addition to linear carbonates. The thermogravimetric study showed that the thermal stability of the product is highly similar to that reported for GC. These results exhibit that the synthesis process produces linear and cyclic carbonates.