Cleaner gasoline production by using glycerol as fuel extender

Glycerol, a major by-product of biodiesel production, was employed as a fuel extender in this study. The process was originally investigated by etherifying the entire fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline with glycerol. The reactions were carried out in a pressurized liquid phase reactor in the presence of three different catalysts (i.e. Amberlyst 16, Amberlyst 15, and β-zeolite) at 70 °C and 2.6 MPa with a volume ratio of FCC gasoline to glycerol ratio of 84:16 for 10 h. The catalytic activity could be ordered as Amberlyst 16 > Amberlyst 15 >> β-zeolite. The properties of FCC and etherified FCC products were determined by the standard analysis of Research Octane Number (RON), blending Reid vapor pressure (bRvp), distillation temperature following the standard methods of ASTM D-2699, ASTM D-5191 and ASTM D-86, respectively. It was found that the olefin content decreased opposing with increasing of octane number due to ethers of glycerol formation and the etherified gasoline product has lower bRvp than that of original FCC gasoline. The process of FCC gasoline etherification with glycerol showed great environmental benefits; in addition, ethers produced renewably from glycerol could extend the gasoline volume.