Glycerol purification using reactivated spent bleaching earth from palm oil refineries: Zero-waste approach

Neto

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

et al. 2023

Due to the growth in global demand for biodiesel, there is a tendency for the volume of its main by‐product, glycerol, available on the market to increase. This has led to a search for new uses for this by‐product and the development of new processes that use glycerol as a raw material because it has wide industrial applications. However, to be used in many of these processes, the glycerol must go through a purification stage before reaching the purity required for the application (which can reach 99.7% w/w). Taking this into account, the optimization of the parameters for the main glycerol purification stage (vacuum distillation) is essential to reduce the cost of this stage as much as possible. In this article, optimization of the vacuum distillation column was carried out using an artificial neural network (ANN) and a genetic algorithm (GA) together. With the optimization, it was found that four theoretical stages of equilibrium (separation) is the optimal value, in economics terms, for the distillation column on an industrial scale, leading to better performance (in terms of glycerol purity) than patents that used a smaller number of theoretical stages and an equal performance in relation to the patents that used a greater number of stages, which in this case reduces the cost with the size of the column. This result helps to increase the financially viability of using glycerol as a raw material, which can make several processes cheaper, thus generating greater added value to this sustainable by‐product.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimized conditions for the design and operation of a vacuum distillation column for the purification of crude glycerol from biodiesel production

Neto

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

et al. 2023

“…The bleaching procedure effectively reduces the large amount of free fatty acids (FFA), odor, and pigmented compounds (e.g., carotenoids and chlorophyll) contained in crude glycerol. 13 Maximum yields can be achieved using bleaching recovery techniques for glycerol 14 since bleaching not only recovers the glycerol but also saponies the free triglycerides. 15 In the third recovery process, crude glycerol is rst recovered by centrifugation, and then any contaminated soap is converted to acid or salt by treatment with hydrochloric acid.…”

Section: Crude Glycerol Recovery and Purificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, carotenoids and chlorophyll) contained in crude glycerol. 13 Maximum yields can be achieved using bleaching recovery techniques for glycerol 14 since bleaching not only recovers the glycerol but also saponifies the free triglycerides. 15…”

Section: Crude Glycerol Recovery and Purificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery and utilization of crude glycerol, a biodiesel byproduct

2022

“…For example, biomass‐derived glycerol is the main by‐product from producing biodiesel and the global production of crude glycerol reached a record 5 billion liters in 2021, [ 9 ] in which the serious supply glut as the biodiesel production increased results in its low‐cost (US$0.08–0.18 kg −1 ). [ 10 ] Meanwhile, glycerol as an excellent platform chemical that can be converted into higher‐value products through different chemical routes, [ 11 ] which is expected to further improve the utilization efficiency of biomass resources. Comparing with the many heterogeneous catalytic processes experienced under high temperature and high pressure, the electrocatalytic refinery (e‐refinery) provides a simple, sustainable, and environmentally benign approach for the conversion of easily available feedstocks and renewable energy sources into high value‐added fuels and chemicals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical Biomass Upgrading Coupled with Hydrogen Production under Industrial‐Level Current Density

Qian

et al. 2023

Advanced Materials

100

As promising hydrogen energy carrier, formic acid (HCOOH) plays an indispensable role in building a complete industry chain of a hydrogen economy. Currently, the biomass upgrading assisted water electrolysis has emerged as an attractive alternative for co-producing green HCOOH and H 2 in a cost-effective manner, yet simultaneously affording high current density and Faradaic efficiency (FE) still remains a big challenge. Here, the ternary NiVRu-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanosheet arrays for selective glycerol oxidation and hydrogen evolution catalysis are reported, which yield an industry-level 1 A cm −2 at voltage of 1.933 V, meanwhile showing considerable HCOOH and H 2 productivities of 12.5 and 17.9 mmol cm −2 h −1 , with FEs of almost 80% and 96%, respectively. Experimental and theoretical results reveal that the introduced Ru atoms can tune the local electronic structure of Ni-based LDHs, which not only optimizes hydrogen adsorption kinetics for HER, but also reduces the reaction energy barriers for both the conversion of Ni II into GOR-active Ni III and carbon-carbon (C-C) bond cleavage. In short, this work highlights the potential of large-scale H 2 and HCOOH productions from integrated electrocatalytic system and provides new insights for designing advanced electrocatalyst for low-cost and sustainable energy conversion.