Glycerol (G) is the major co-product of biodiesel in the transesteri-fication
process. As the clean energy demand increases, the G production also
increases and new ways of re-using it are needed. In the last decade, some
experimental studies claimed that G and its derivative, malonic acid (MA),
could be used as corrosion inhibitors. Yet, at the present, there is few
evidence of it and more studies are needed to confirm that G and MA would
have a good performance in metal protection. The present work aims to study
the reactivity of G and MA, since reactivity and inhibition are intimately
linked. Density functional theory (DFT) at the B3YLP/6-31G++ level of theory
was used to study both molecules? reactivity. The global and local quantum
parameters derived are used to assess the reactivity of both molecules.
Analysis of the calculated reactivity descriptors suggest that G and MA
should exhibit an acceptable corrosion efficiency, but MA showed greater
potential as corrosion inhibitor.