GLYCEROL DERIVED COMPOUNDS AS SUBSTITUTES FOR CONVENTIONAL SOLVENTS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1028407
• Grant No.: 2022-33530-36990
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $175,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2022-01009
• Project Start Date: Jul 1, 2022
• Project End Date: Jun 30, 2023
• Grant Year: 2022
• Program Code: [8.8]- Biofuels and Biobased Products

Recipient Organization
AMERICAN RENEWABLE METALS, LLC
1616 25TH AVE
TUSCALOOSA,AL 354014521

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
The production of biofuels such biodiesel and green diesel uses animal fats and vegetable oils as feedstocks for the conversion process to dieselfuel. In the conversion process a biproduct chemical, glycerin, is produced. This glycerin biproduct is a waste or low value stream typically sold for less than $0.10 lb.This project will investigate the conversion of the biproduct glycerin into higher value chemicals (>$1.00/lb) that can be used asenvironmentally friendly solvents and absorbents to remove greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. These new solvents and absorbents can be marketed and sold into industry. Furthermore, this new revenue stream will help reduce the overall cost of the biofuel production and in turn provide more revenue to the American farmer.

Animal Health Component

30%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

20%

Applied

30%

Developmental

50%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
402	0199	2000	100%

Knowledge Area
402 - Engineering Systems and Equipment;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
2000 - Chemistry;

Keywords

glycerin

glycerol

glycerol derivative

glycerol ether

green solvents

Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to convert waste glycerin from biodiesel production into higher value chemicals. These glycerinderived chemicals (GDCs) could have numerous benefits. We anticipate that this effort will increase the market value of glycerinformed as a byproduct during production of biodiesel from agricultural feedstocks and lead to opportunities for process intensification.The objectives of this project are to:Study the properties of GDCs as "green" solvents including their use in CO2 capture applications. Will they be cost-competitive with equivalent petroleum-based products?Develop economical chemocatalytic processes for generating selected GDCs. This will be accomplished by minimizing energy use, production of harmful byproducts, and life cycle carbon emissions compared to existing, petroleum-derived products, and by leveraging heterogeneous catalytic routes rather than synthetic chemistry approaches that produce significant quantities of byproducts.Generate economic assessments of the viability of the envisioned processes. This should improve the economic feasibility of production of biodiesel by creating a route from low-value glycerinto high value chemicals.

Project Methods
Product Purity and Stability Analysis. We will conduct the analysis of the synthesized product and determine its purity and any impurities. Stability studies will be conducted through accelerated aging studies with heat, moisture, UV and oxygen exposure.Physical Property Measurements. We will evaluate the physical properties of products of interest. These include: Density, Viscosity, Thermal Properties (Melting, Freezing, Degradation Temperature, Vapor Point, Latent Heat, Specific Heat), pH, Moisture content, Color, Odor, Flash point, Compatibility with certain polymers (HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PTE, PP and others as needed).Measurement of Solvating Properties of GDCs. We will determine solvating properties of the GDCs for the following standard compounds: fats/oils/lipids, free fatty acids, calcium soaps of fatty acids, long chain paraffin waxes, sugar-based compounds (glucose, sucrose), protein formulations (whey, blood, others), others (to be determined).

Progress 07/01/22 to 06/28/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The materials that we developed in this work can be used as solvents and carbon dioxide capture materials. As solvents some of the markets that can be targeted are paints and cleaners. As carbon dioxide capture materials, the target market when we first began this project was electrical power generation stations that use carbon based fossil fuels. However, a secondary market was discovered that is proving to be easier to penetrate. This market includes fermentation industries such as wineries and breweries that generate a significant amount of carbon dioxide but also use carbon dioxide. Changes/Problems:Changes - One of the major discoveries was related to the market opportunity. We originally thought our target market would be carbon burning electrical power plants. However, during our evaluation we determined that a lower barrier to entry and unmet market opportunity was to capture the CO2 from fermentation industries such as breweries. There is a significant amount of CO2 generated by the fermentation process that is vented to the atmosphere. Ironically, breweries will purchase CO2 to carbonate their beverages and flush the lines of their systems. This led to us changing our target market. Problems - Our biggest problem was relying on feedback from potential customers. They were either slow in replying, needed more time because of higher priorities, or needed more sample or did not know how to incorporate it into their existing products. That helped us to look for other opportunities that we could control ourselves with customers that had a large interest in CO2 reuse. Hence the pivot to breweries. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students participated in this research. They were mentored on reactor design, organic synthesis and analytical analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In 2023 we gave 16 tours of our facility and research areas. These tours included high school students, teachers, college professors and administrators, local politicians, and local professional businesses. They all seemed to understand the nature and need for the project. When we described the capture of carbon dioxide and reuse of carbon dioxide from breweries they all seemed to understand the commercial applications then. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. The cost of these GDC's are estimated to be one third the cost of equivalent petroleum based Products. 2.Experiments were performed with glycerol, mono-ether, and di-ether reagents, using either H-MFI or H-Beta zeolite powders obtained from Zeolyst. A small-scale testing setup was designed and fabricatedto enable measurement of reaction kinetics without long pre-heat times. 3. The economics of biodiesel do not seem to improve from taking a low value glycerin to a higher value chemical. This is mainly because the glycerol market has improved and the need to refine the glycerol prior to derivitization. However, one of the major discoveries was related to the market opportunity. We originally thought our target market would be carbon burning electrical power plants. However, during our evaluation we determined that a lower barrier to entry and unmet market opportunity was to capture the CO2 from fermentation industries such as breweries. There is a significant amount of CO2 generated by the fermentation process that is vented to the atmosphere. Ironically, breweries will purchase CO2 to carbonate their beverages and flush the lines of their systems. This led to us changing our target market.

Publications