The economics of biodiesel could be improved if value-added products such as solketal was produced from by-product glycerol. In situ drying agent had been employed to increase the yield of solketal synthesized by the condensation reaction of acetone and glycerol catalyzed by acid in a solvent-free system. An orthogonal experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of molar ratio of acetone to glycerol, catalyst dosage, reaction temperature and reaction time on the condensation reaction of acetone and glycerol. Besides, the kinetics of condensation reaction was discussed. Under the conditions of reaction temperature 80℃, reaction time 1.0 h, molar ratio of acetone to glycerol 1∶1.4 and catalyst dosage 3 g per molar acetone, the conversion rate of acetone could achieve 87.80%. The kinetics analysis showed that the condensation reaction was pseudo-second-order reaction and the activation energy and frequency factor were 35.58 kJ/mol and 5.657×106, respectively. |