Glycerol: A Promising Green Source for Chemicals and Fuels

Glycerol is a simple polyol compound and has a variety of applications in cosmetics, food, pharmaceutical, and other industries. Currently, glycerol mainly comes from biodiesel production, hydrolysis and saponification reaction of triglycerides. Therefore, glycerol is considered a green source for using itself and for the further transformation into chemicals and fuels. Indeed, glycerol can be converted into many useful products including glycerol carbonate, 1,3-propanediol, acrolein, hydrogen, glycerol ethers, solketal, lactic acid, short-chain polyglycerol, poly(glycerol sebacate), and dihydroxyacetone. For the utilization of pure glycerol in cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical, glycerol needs to purify due to the high impurities of crude glycerol from production processes. In this chapter, the purification of glycerol and several potential reaction processes of glycerol conversion are discussed.