Possibilities of waste glycerol reprocessing

The aim of my bachelor thesis is to describe the possibilities of waste glycerol reprocessing. The thesis is purely theoretical and the information were obtained from various literary sources. Introduction of the study deals with the technological aspects of production of biodiesel by esterification of vegetable oils with methanol. Futhermore, there is described the amount of biodiesel produced in various countries around the world. In the theoretical part of the study are mentioned physical and chemical properties of glycerol and its traditional uses include the manufacture of nitroglycerin, the pharmaceutical use, etc. There are presented different technological methods for processing large quantities of glycerol too, such as steam reforming, which generates syngas which can be used for production of liquid fuels via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. There is also desribed reduction of glycerol to propylene glycol with hydrogen. Other methods are dehydroxylation of glycerol to 1,3 - propanediol, halogenation of glycerol to produce epichlorohydrin, the catalytic dehydration of glycerol to acrolein and 3-hydroxy-propionic aldehyde, oxydehydration to polyacrylic acid, glycerol butylation over the Amberlyst catalyst and the formation of glycerol-tert-butyl ethers used as additives for fuels , polymerization of glycerol to polyglycerols, glycerol hydrothermal conversion to lactic acid catalyzed by alkali, esterification of carboxylic acids and glycerol to form glycerol esters, selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceric acid, tartronic acid and dihydroxyacetone, and glycerol as an additive for cement