Currently, solketal is produced from glycerol and acetone by using heterogeneous catalyst. However, a solid heterogeneous catalyst is not preferable since water contained in the glycerol, is adsorbed on the surface of the catalyst. Water could act as inhibitor in the reaction and lowering the activity of the catalyst. Therefore, homogenous acid catalyst is proposed to avoid the inhibition during the reaction. The aim of this research was to utilize sulphuric acid as the homogenous acid catalyst, to explore the effect of the mole ratio glycerol:acetone to the conversion, and determine the entrophy and entaphy of the reaction . The process was carried out in a three neck reactor equipped with a heater, temperature control, cooler and stirrer. The reaction conditions were set at a constant boiling temperature, the reaction time was varied at 4 - 12 h, and the mole ratio of acetone to glycerol was varied in the range of 2:1 - 7: 1. Results indicated that the highest conversion (>80 %) was recorded at 62°C, 10 h, and 6.9:1 mole ratio. The conversion of glycerol to solketal was influenced by mole ratio which is consistent to Lecatelier principle. From the entropy ΔS =280.02 J. mole K−1) and enthalpy ΔH= 95.948 J. mole−1), it can be concluded that the reaction of solketal formation was exothermic.

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Alginate is a naturally occurring anionic carbohydrate polymer which could be coupled with metallic cationic molecules to form heterogeneous catalyst. However, the potency of the heterogeneous catalyst on the production of solketal was not explored. This research was proposed to investigate the potency of Ferri-Alginate (Fe-Alg) as a cheap and environmentally friendly catalyst in the solketal reaction. Fe-Alg was synthesized by reacting FeCl3 to sodium alginate with different concentrations (0.1 -0.5 M). Fe-Alg catalyst was characterized both on the physical and chemical activity. By using BET analysis, it was indicated that the addition of FeCl3 concentration increased the surface area of the catalyst. By using TGA/DSC analysis, it was found that Fe-Alg catalyst was stable up to 153°C. From GC/MS analysis, it was found that solketal was formed after the reaction of glycerol and acetone by using Fe-Alg as the catalyst.