Revalorization of glycerol: Comestible oil from biodiesel synthesis

High dependence on fossil fuel has caused increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. The actual political trends are towards an increased use of renewable fuels from agricultural origin. One of the main products of the European biorefineries is biodiesel. The main reaction involved in biodiesel synthesis produces a large amount of glycerol as by-product. TWO aspects are arising in this respect: the glycerol obtained as residue and the food conversion to fuel. This paper deals with the revalorization of the residual glycerol stream to obtain triacetin (glyceryl triacetate), the lightest comestible oil. The application of glycerol as raw material to produce triacetin is not new. The goal of this paper is to check the feasibility of this transformation in an efficient integrated continuous process which is suitable for processing high quantities of glycerol. A kinetic model was determined experimentally for the production of triacetin from glycerol and acetic acid in the absence of catalyst. The results showed that by process integration of the reaction and distillation in the same unit (reactive distillation), a more sustainable process can be developed. The proposed configuration output is checked by rigorous simulation. (C) 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.