Reactor clogging is one of the major challenges in operating of a
continuous-flow reactor process, particularly with heterogeneous
catalysts. During the course of the current investigations, the clogging of the flow reactor was observed for some catalysts including
zeolite, montmorillonite and polymax. The increase in flow rate
and/or increase in the catalyst loading in the reactor would cause
agglomeration of the particles which clogged the reactor resulting in a sharp increase in the reactor pressure. This suggests that these
catalysts may not be suitable for being used for the present glycerol ketalization process using the flow reactor. Admittedly, the
reactor clogging phenomenon could be efficiently avoided by diluting the catalyst with inert materials such as glass beads or by minimizing the catalyst bed height. On the basis of the product yield
and experimental conditions, the overall results of this study
(88% yield for Amberlyst Wet at 40C, 600 psi and WHSV of
4h
1
) are better than what reported in literature