Review of Different Purification Techniques for Crude Glycerol from Biodiesel Production

Abstract

The global glycerol market has experienced a surplus in recent decades due to an increase in biodiesel production and thus created a new form of challenge in terms of purification of the crude glycerol. Various techniques have been developed worldwide on purification of crude glycerol. These processes include chemical pre-treatment, methanol removal, vacuum distillation, ion exchange, adsorption, solvent extraction and membrane separation technology to mention a few.
 In Nigeria, domesticating these technologies or techniques to suit our peculiar situation and also be cost effective needs a critical evaluation of all the available options.
 This review, therefore, summarises the progress of crude glycerol purification technologies using various techniques as compared with the process technology developed by researchers at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, Lagos Nigeria.

Purifying Crude Glycerol from Biodiesel Production for Sustainable Energy Solutions

“…The utilization of membrane technology in conjunction with the ion exchange method represents a highly effective approach to purifying crude glycerol (CG), an inevitable byproduct in the biodiesel production process [26], [77]. This combined approach offers a versatile means of eliminating a diverse range of impurities that may be present in crude glycerol.…”

Recovery of potassium salt by acidification of crude glycerol derived from biodiesel production

“…The summary of glycerol purication technologies is presented in Table 1. Advanced technologies are employed to purify crude glycerol, including vacuum distillation, [22][23][24] ion exchange, 25,26 membrane separation, 15,27 adsorption, [28][29][30] electrodialysis, 4 and membrane distillation. 31 All of these techniques succeeded in increasing the purity of glycerol, although only some of the methods yielded more than 90% purity as expected.…”

Development of Biofuels as an Alternative Source to Petroleum: A Review

“…Cellulosic raw materials for the second generation of biofuels were grown on land that couldn't be used for food production. The third and fourth biofuel generations, on the other hand, are categorized as being made from algal biomass and, respectively, specially engineered plants and microorganisms [7][8][9][10][11][12]. This review article discusses the various generations of biofuels and how non-edible and vegetable oils can be converted to biodiesel through the biotransesterification process, as well as how sugars can be converted to bioethanol either by enhancing the medium and substrates needed for ethanol production or by genetically altering yeast cells.…”