Towards selective electrochemical conversion of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol

Abstract

1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) is a bulk chemical with myriad applications in polymers, lubricants, cosmetics, foods industries and in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds. Current commercial production of 1,3-PD involves a thermocatalytic process using acrolein (DuPont) and ethylene oxide (Shell) as starting feedstock. These feedstocks are petroleum-based and there are many efforts at using glycerol as low cost biomass-derived feedstock for 1,3-PD production. A number of catalyst designs and bacterial & fungal strains are being explored for respective catalytic and fermentation routes to glycerol-to-1,3-PD.However, the electrochemical method received little attention for the purpose. In this work, in order to explore the possibility of using partly refined glycerol byproduct of biodiesel production as feedstock, we investigated conversion and 1,3-PD selectivity of glycerol electrolysis in chloride media. We demonstrated selective glycerol-to-1,3-PD conversion using Pt or RuO 2 -based dsa as anode and Zn or Pb as cathode in NaCl and KCl at pH 1. This electrochemical glycerol-to-1,3-PD conversion is not only green, it is a potential process network loop between biodiesel production and chlor-alkali industry.

Direct and Indirect Electrooxidation of Glycerol to Value‐Added Products

“…This limitation can be bypassed either by thermal or catalytic dehydration of neighboring hydroxy groups (see, e. g., Ref. [16]), or by an electrooxidation of the hydroxy group to a respective ketone or aldehyde, making the adjacent hydroxy groups accessible for subsequent reductive removal [15,17,18] . The products that are accessible by oxidation such as glyceraldehyde, glyceric acid, dihydroxyacetone, hydroxypyruvic acid, and tartronic acid (Scheme 1) make glycerol a promising key platform chemical [19] .…”

A review of recent developments on kinetics parameters for glycerol electrochemical conversion – A by-product of biodiesel

“…Although some of these products are vastly valuable compounds (like glycolic acid, glyceric acid and lactic acid), others like dihydroxyacetone have a lower price in the market. The valu able compounds like 1,2 propanediol and 1,3 propanediol are the new potential products that have been achieved recently via glyc erol electro reduction reaction, where 1,3 propanediol has higher market price than 1,2 propanediol (James et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2018). Some products available from both glycerol electro oxidation and electro reduction reactions with their applications are listed in Table 1.…”

Integrating Electrochemistry Into Bioreactors: Effect of the Upgrade Kit on Mass Transfer, Mixing Time and Sterilizability

“…This can be considered as the technological heart of the upgrade kit, as it allows operation in a two-chamber system with physical separation of anodic oxidation and cathodic reduction. As polmyer-based membranes are commonly applied as separators in MES, the sterilization procedure was exemplified using a widely utilized cation exchange membrane (fumasep FKE) (e.g., Rozendal et al, 2008;Sevda et al, 2013;Jiang et al, 2017;Rosa et al, 2017;James et al, 2018). For preliminary tests in non-sterile conditions, it was shown that mechanical mounting of the membrane was sufficient.…”