Vol. 10 No.

2 : 83-88

INDUSTRI
ISSN 1693-0533

COMPARATION GLYCEROL DEGRADATION

BY MICROWAVE HEATING
AND BY HYDROTHERMAL TREATMENT
Lailatul Qadariyah1, Siti Machmudah1,2, Armando T.Quantain3,
Mitsuru Sasaki3, Motonobu Goto2, Sumarno1, Mahfud1
1)

Departement of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Kampus ITS Sukolilo Surabaya 60111, Indonesia
2)
Bioelectrics Research Center, Kumamoto University, Japan
3)
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Japan
Email : mahfud@chem-eng.its.ac.id
Abstract: Degradation of glycerol was carried out by microwave heating and hydrotermal process in temperature
range of 100-200oC, in power range of 200-500 Watt and in reaction time range of 2-60 minutes. The effect of
temperature, power, reaction time and using activated carbon as catalyst was investigated. As a result, the rate of
acetaldehyde formation using microwave heating with activated carbon was higher than the hydrothermal
treatment and microwave heating without a catalyst, but the rate of acrolein formation acrolein was lower than
hydrothermal treatment and microwave heating without a catalyst. The constant rate of glycerol degradation
were 0.012, 0.009, and 0.008 for microwave heating using activated carbon catalyst, hydrothermal, and
microwave heating without catalyst.
Keywords: Degradation, glycerol, microwave, hydrothermal, activated carbon
Abstrak: Degradasi gliserol dilakukan dengan pemanasan microwave dan proses hidrotermal dalam range suhu
100-200oC, range power 200-500 Watt dan waktu reaksi 2-60 menit. Pengamatan dilakukan terhadap pengaruh
suhu, power, waktu reaksi, dan penggunaan karbon aktif sebagai katalis. Sebagai hasilnya, kecepatan
pembentukan asetaldehid menggunakan pemanasan microwave dengan karbon aktif lebih tinggi daripada
proses hidrotermal dan pemanasan microwave tanpa katalis, tetapi kecepatan pembentukan acrolein lebih
rendah daripada proses hidrotermal dan pemanasan microwave tanpa katalis. Konstanta degradasi gliserol
adalah 0.012, 0.009, dan 0.008 masing-masing untuk pemanasan microwave dengan karbon aktif, proses
hidrotermal, dan pemanasan microwave tanpa katalis.
Kata kunci: Degradasi, gliserol, microwave, hidrotermal, karbon aktif

INTRODUCTION
Biodiesel production is expected to increase in
future with the depletion fossil fuels, leading to an
increase in by products of biodiesel production,
approximately 10% of which is glycerol. Glycerol
is widely used in various fields such as food,
pharmacy, and cosmetics. An excessive amount
of glycerol will put downward pressure on its price;
thus, its conversion into added value products is
interest. Decomposition of glycerol produce
varieties of added value products such as acrolein,
acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, allyl alcohol,
methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde (Buhler et
al.2002), and gas products, such as syngas
(Adhikari et al. 2007; Bird et al. 2008; Slinn et al.
2008; Vallyapan et al. 2008).
Decomposition of glycerol has been widely
carried out with or without catalyst. Reactions of
glycerol decomposition have been studied with

various processes such as pyrolysis (Valliyappan

et al. 2008), steam reforming (Adhikari et al. 2007;
Bird et al. 2008; Slinn et al. 2008), catalytic
reaction (Lili et al. 2008; Tsukuda et al. 2007) and
subcritical or supercritical water (Antal et al. 1985;
Buhler et al. 2002; May et al. 2010; Ott et al.
2006; Rammaya et al. 1987; Watanabe et al.
2007). In addition to the above reaction, glycerol
decomposition can be performed using microwaves
to generate high temperatures required in glycerol
degradation (Fernandez et al. 2009).
Microwave is not only known as food heating
in the kitchen, but now also used in chemical
reactions. Microwaves are in the region between
infrared and radiowave wavelengths in the
electromagnetic spectrum. More specifically,
microwaves are defined as those waves with
wavelengths between 0.001 and 1 m, which
correspond to frequencies between 300 and 0.3
83

Lailatul et.al.

GHz. The microwave band is widely used in

telecommunications. In order to avoid interference
with these uses, the wavelengths of industrial,
research, medical and domestic equipment are
regulated both at national and international levels.
Thus, the main operating frequency in the majority
of countries is 2.450 (+/-0.050) GHz (Menendez
et al. 2010).
Polar molecules, like water try to follow the field
and align themselves in phase with the field when
exposed to an oscillating electromagnetic field.
However, owing to inter-molecular forces, polar
molecules experience inertia and are unable to
follow the field. This results in the random motion
of particles, and this random interaction generates
heat (Taylor et al. 2005).
Microwave dielectric heating have many
advantages compared to conventional heating for
chemical conversions. The introduction of
microwave energy into a chemical reaction which
has at least one component which is capable of
coupling strongly with microwaves can lead to
much higher heating rates than those which are
achieved conventionally (Gabriel et al. 1998),
moreover microwave heating achieve rapid and
uniform heating of materials, because microwaves
can penetrate materials and deposit energy, heat
can be generated throughout the volume of the
material, besides that microwave heating is the
transfer of electromagnetic energy to thermal
energy and is energy conversion, rather than heat
transfer (Thoestenson and Chou, 1999).
Microwaves can be utilitized for selective
heating of materials. The molecular structure
affects the ability of the microwave to interact with
materials and transfer energy. Based on its
characteristic of microwave, activated carbon is
used not only as a catalyst, but also as an absorber
of microwave. In activated carbon, delocalized
-electrons are free to move in relatively broad
regions, an additional and very interesting
phenomenon may take place. The kinetic energy
of some electrons may increase enabling them to
jump out of the material, resulting in the ionization
of the surrounding atmosphere. At a macroscopic
level, this phenomenon is perceived as sparks or
electric arcs formation. But, at a microscopic level,
84

Comparation Glycerol Degradation

these hot spots are actually plasmas. Most of the

time these plasmas can be regarded as
microplasmas both from the point of view of space
and time, since they are confined to a tiny region
of the space and last for just a fraction of a
second. An intensive generation of such
microplasmas may have important implications for
the processes involved (Menendez et al. 2010).
There are few research related to glycerol
degradation using microwave heating. Fernandez
et al. (2009) conducted pyrolysis of glycerol over
carbonaceous catalyst to produce synthesis gas
using microwave. This study focuses on the
degradation of glycerol using microwave heating
and hydrothermal process and comparing both of
them. The effect of reaction time, power and
temperature were observed.
The hydrotermal technologies are widely used
both in organic reactions and extraction. The
water properties are dependent on temperature
and pressure. In the subcritical region, water has
different properties from water at room
temperature: its ion product is higher than in
ambient conditions, meaning that it acts as an acid/
base catalyst precursor. In a hydrothermal
process, water may act not only as a solvent but
also as a reactant, catalyst or product (Kruse and
Dinjus, 2007).
Buhler et al. (2002) described glycerol pyrolysis
in near-critical and supercritical water through two
competing pathways, ionic and free radical. The
ionic reaction pathway was favored within the
subcritical region due to the waters high ion
product; the free radical pathway was favored for
supercritical water, where the ion product of water
and dielectric constant were low. Buhler et al.
(2002) conducted experiments in the temperature
range of 622-748 K, pressures of 25, 35 or 45
MPa, and reaction times of 32 to 165 s.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials
Glycerol with 99% purity, acetaldehyde,
acetonitrile, HClO4 and BTB were purchased from
Wako Pure Chemical Co., Japan. Acrolein was
obtained from Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., LTD,
Japan.

INDUSTRI
ISSN 1693-0533

Methods Microwave Heating

The experiments were carried out in
temperature range of 100-200oC, power range of
200-500 Watt and reaction time range of 20-60
minutes. The experiments were conducted in a
teflon reactor with a volume 100 cm3. The
glycerol solution 0.96 M was loaded to reactor.

Vol. 10 No. 2 : 83-88

un-reacted glycerol was analyzed by HPLC with

a Sugar SH-1011 column using RI detector.
Mobile phase was HClO4 (0.003 M) and BTB
(0.1 M) for coloring medium with flow rate of 1
ml/min and 0.5 ml/min, respectively. Column
temperature was held on 60oC.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 1. Acetaldehyde yield vs reaction time at

200oC.

The sealed reactor was heated in microwave

(Shikoku Instrumentation Co., Ltd., Japan)
equiped with fiber optic termocouple. After a
certain time, the microwave was turned off, and
the reactor was immersed in a water bath. Product liquid was analyzed by HPLC.

Experiments were carried out under microwave

heating without and with activated carbon as
catalyst. Microwave heating was indicated as mw.
As a comparison, hydrotermal treatment was also
carried out on glycerol degradation. Product yield
was defined as concentration of product divided
by initial concentration of glycerol, while
conversion of glycerol was obtained based on
initial and residual concentration of glycerol. The
identified products were acetaldehyde and
acrolein.

The Effect of Reaction Conditions

The effect of reaction time on acetaldehyde yield

at various method can be seen in Figure 1.
Acetaldehyde yield in microwave heating activated
carbon catalyst is higher than hydrothermal
treatment and microwave heating without catalyst.
Although measurements recorded same
temperature of 200oC, but in microwave heating
Hydrothermal Treatment
The experiments were carried out in a SUS 304 gives rise to hot spots, which can be considered
reactor with an inner volume of 8.8 cm3 (AKICO as microplasmas, inside the dielectric solid,
Co., Ltd., Japan) in time reaction range of 20-60 where the temperature is much higher than the
minutes at 200oC. The reactor containing the average temperature of the bed (Fernandez et al.,
glycerol solution 0.96 M was purged by Argon 2010). This affects the reaction and the results of
gases to eliminate air, sealed and heated in an acetaldehyde is higher compared to microwave
electric furnace (ISUZU Co., Ltd., model NMF- heating without a catalyst or a hydrothermal
13AD). Following the desired time, the reactor process, but at longer reaction time of 40 minutes,
was immersed in a water bath to stop the reaction. hydrotermal treatment produced acetaldehyde yield
is higher than microwave heating using catalyst.
With increasing reaction time, acrolein
Product Analysis
The liquid product was analyzed by HPLC decreased. Acrolein yield obtained using
installed with an ODS-3 Inertsil column using microwave heating without catalysts have the
0.6 ml/min of 20% volume acetonitrile in water. differences 13-40% of acrolein yield in
The column was maintained at 30oC and the hydrothermal treatment, whereas by microwave
volume injected was 20 L. The analysis was heating using catalyst, acrolein yield is very low.
performed using a UV-Vis detector at 210 nm. This indicates an activated carbon catalyst
The Chromatograph peaks were identified by selectively produces more acetaldehyde than
comparison of retention time of sample with those acrolein. In Figures 1 and 2, both acrolein and
of standard compounds. The concentration of acetaldehyde decreased with increasing of
85

Comparation Glycerol Degradation

Lailatul et.al.

Figure 4 shows the effect of microwave power

at reaction time of 2 minutes using activated
carbon catalyst. In a short time, acrolein does not
appear as product, only acetaldehyde and
un-identified peaks appear as product.
Experimentally, the reaction temperature was also
recorded at each power. The temperature
increased with the power of microwave as shown
by Table 1.
Figure 2. Acrolein yield versus reaction time at
200oC.

Figure 4. Acetaldehyde yield vs power at reaction

time of 2 minutes using catalyst of
activated carbon.
Table 1.
Figure 3. Acetaldehyde and acrolein yield vs
temperature at reaction time of 50 minutes
without catalyst.

reaction time. In this research, there are many

un-identified products but Stein and Antal (1983)
have shown that acrolein and acetaldehyde
decomposed into CO, CO2, and other products.
The effect of temperature was conducted at
reaction time of 50 minutes without catalyst.
Acetaldehyde yield was higher than acrolein yield.
It can be seen in Figure 3, but both of them show
the same trend curve. The formation of acrolein
and acetaldehyde occur in a competitive reaction.
Antal et al. (1985) stated that acrolein can be
formed from glycerol via dehydration followed by
another dehydration. The intermediate
2-hydroxypropanal could also suffer homolytic
cleavage to form acetaldehyde and formaldehyde.
Buhler et al. (2002) explained acrolein and
acetaldehyde is formed by ionic and by radical
reaction. If glycerol is protonated at secondary
OH-group, only the formation of acrolein occurs,
but for primary carbenium ion, competitive
reaction occur.
86

The temperature of reaction at various

power

Power (Watt)

T( C)

200

70.5

300

97

400

117.1

500

181

600

215.7

At power of 500 Watt and reaction time of 2

minutes, fiber optic thermocouple recorded the
temperature of 181oC and acetaldehyde yield was
0.33 mol%, while in the hydrothermal treatment,
the temperature of 200oC and reaction time of 20
minutes, acetaldehyde yield was 0.24 mol%. This
indicated the microwave heating with activated
carbon catalyst is an efficient and effective heating
due to shorter heating produces higher
acetaldehyde yield.

Kinetic Analysis
The effect of reaction time on conversion of
glycerol can be seen in Figure 5. The conversion

Vol. 10 No. 2 : 83-88

INDUSTRI
ISSN 1693-0533

of glycerol in microwave heating using catalyst was

higher than in hydrothermal treatment and in microwave heating without catalyst. The highest of
glycerol conversion was 55% at reaction time of
60 minutes by microwave heating using catalyst.

Table 2.

Reaction rate constant at certain

temperature.

Method

k1
-1

(min )
Microwave heating with
catalyst
Microwave heating
without catalyst
Hydrothermal treatment

0.012
0.008
0.009

CONCLUSIONS

Figure 5. The conversion of glycerol vs reaction

time at 200oC.

Kinetic analysis for glycerol degradation was

conducted based on data for a reaction time of
20-60 minutes at temperature of 200 oC by
hydrothermal treatment, microwave heating
without and with catalyst.
The mechanism of glycerol degradation was
complicated by the many unidentified products, so
simplifications were made to determine the
kinetics equation. The kinetic equation was
calculated based on the initial and remaining
concentrations of glycerol. The overall rate
reaction was described by pseudo-first-order
kinetics due to the two reactants, but the amount
of water was excessive can be expressed in the
following forms:
Glycerol + Water ======> products
Reaction rate:

The microwave heating using activated carbon

produced acetaldehyde higher than the
hydrothermal treatment and microwave heating
without a catalyst, but produced acrolein lower
than hydrothermal treatment and microwave
heating without a catalyst.
Acetaldehyde and acrolein yield increased with
the temperature and acetaldehyde yield was higher
than acrolein yield.
At reaction time of 2 minutes, the reaction only
produced acetaldehyde and un-identified product.
The rate of glycerol degradation using
microwave heating with activated carbon was
higher than hydrothermal and microwave heating
processes without catalyst where k1 values were
0.012, 0.009, and 0.008 for microwave heating
using activated carbon catalyst, hydrothermal, and
microwave heating without a catalyst.

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