The direct use of glycerol as fuel is however not encouraged due
to its low calorific value, high boiling point and high polarity. Nevertheless,
its conversion into ketals and ethers has demonstrated
the potential for being used as oxygenated fuel additives [2–4].
Ketals and ethers can be utilized as oxygenate fuel additive or combustion
promoter as the addition of ketals and ethers in gasoline
engines improve the octane number, cold flow and ignition properties
of the fuel with reduced particulate emission, and gum formation
[5–7]. The aquatox fish test requested by the authors’ group on
the toxicity of the solketal showed that solketal (with a LC50 for fish
to be as high as 3162 ppm) has demonstrated much less environmental
toxicity than the common fuel additive Methyl tert-butyl
ether (MTBE) with a LC501000 ppm.