A review on glycerol purification consequent to its formation as a byproduct in biodiesel manufacture by trans-esterification process of fats

Abstract

roduction of biodiesel is becoming popular for its obvious reasons. Tranesterification technology is till date the main
method to get fatty acid methyl esters or biodiesel. Glycerol formed as a byproduct in transesterification could be
utilized after freeing it from contaminants. This short review provides critical and essential process parameters firstly
to have pure biodiesel product and more particularly to get pure glycerol byproduct, both being used in their purer
forms for different purposes. The work of several workers suggests that glycerol washing as a focus comprise raw
glycerol being treated with a few physicochemical processes and enhance its purity to as high as over 95% which
since from commercial angle
is a good achievement. The steps suggest what among others are safe process steps, what physical processes are best
suited and what practices yield highly pure glycerol. Not only the chemicals like solvents utilized in the process could
be recovered but also value-added pure byproduct glycerol could be produced on a substantial scale from biodiesel
industry.