Upgrading of Biobased Glycerol to Glycerol Carbonate as a Tool to Reduce the CO₂ Emissions of the Biodiesel Fuel Life Cycle

Abstract

With regards to oil-based diesel fuel, the adoption of bio-derived diesel fuel was estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 75%, considering the whole life cycle. In this paper, we present a novel continuous-flow process able to transfer an equimolar amount of CO2 (through urea) to glycerol, producing glycerol carbonate. This represents a convenient tool, able to both improve the efficiency of the biodiesel production through the conversion of waste streams into added-value chemicals and to beneficially contribute to the whole carbon cycle. By means of a Design of Experiments approach, the influence of key operating variables on the product yield was studied and statistically modeled.

Keywords

• biodiesel
• glycerol
• flow chemistry
• glycerol carbonate
• carbon cycle
• CO₂ capture