Critical review on the current scenario and significance of crude glycerol resulting from biodiesel industry towards more sustainable renewable energy industry

Muhammad Ayoub and Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2012, vol. 16, issue 5, 2671-2686

Abstract: Biodiesel production through transesterification of vegetable oils and animal fats is rapidly increasing due to strong governmental policies and incentives. However, corresponding increase in the production of crude glycerol causes mixed effects. Sustainable biodiesel production requires optimization of its production process and drastic increase in the utilization of glycerol. High biodiesel yields and low environmental impacts, with respect to needless waste streams are mandatory. As such, upgrading of crude glycerol to highly pure glycerol and subsequent utilization of the product in producing value-added products are emerging research areas. International crude glycerol market is still at an early and very unstable stage. Globally, future conditions for an international market will largely be decided by supply and demand of glycerol for its utilization in conventional and newly developed industries. This paper highlights the current scenario on glycerol production from biodiesel industry, its global market and its new emerging outlets as commodity chemicals.

Keywords: Crude glycerol; Biodiesel industry; Purification processes; Market value; Supply and demand; Outlook (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032112000664
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:16:y:2012:i:5:p:2671-2686

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2012.01.054

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().