Glycerol green chemical transformations

FIGURE 21.8 Green chemical transformations of glycerol to valuable products. 

Glycerol as a by-product from biodiesel production can be considered as a green chemical feedstock for subsequent catalytic transformation. In contrast to traditional petrochemical feedstocks, the present one is highly functionalized, its transformation requiring selective defunctionalization. 

The first part of this chapter is intended to survey recent literature on new catalytic materials because the development of new types of metal oxides and layered- and carbon-based materials with different morphologies opens up novel acid-base catalysis that enables new type of clean reaction technologies. Mechanistic considerations of acid- and base-catalyzed reactions should result in new clean catalytic processes for Green and Sustainable Chemistry, for example, transformations of biorenewable feedstock into value-added chemicals and fuels [21-35]. The latter part of this chapter, therefore, focuses on biomass conversion using solid acid and base catalysts, which covers recent developments on acid-base, one-pot reaction systems for carbon-carbon bond formations, and biomass conversion including synthesis of furfurals from sugars, biodiesel production, and glycerol utilization. 

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