Waste glycerin

Many home brewers are producing soap from biodiesel waste (glycerin). 

S. D. Dzhanakhmedova, E. I. Pryanikov, S. A. Sulejmanova, K. K. Mamedov, E. G. Dubrovina, N. M. Indyukov, and A. B. Sulejmanov. Composition for preventing asphaltene-resin-paraffin deposits—contains waste from production of synthetic glycerine, in mixture with polyacrylamide. Patent SU 1761772-A, 1992. 

S. Yu. Gordienko and L. S. Lartseva. Plugging-solution—contains Portland cement, soda-sulphate waste from alumina production, glycerine and water and hardens at sub-zero temperatures. Patent SU 1760087-A, 1992. 

Chemical plants are a series of operations that take raw materials and convert them into desired products, salable by-products, and unwanted wastes. Fats and oils obtained from animals and plants are hydrolyzed (reacted with water) and then reacted with soda ash or sodium hydroxide to make soaps and glycerine. Bromine and iodine are recovered from sea water and salt brines. Nitrogen and hydrogen are reacted together under pressure in the presence of a catalyst to produce ammonia, the basic ingredient used in the production of synthetic fertilizers. 

By 2006, the U.S. had 77 ethanol plants producing more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol per year. Canada produced an additional 60 million gallons. Corn was the feedstock in 62 of the 77 U.S. plants. Other feedstocks included seed corn, corn and barley, corn and beverage waste, brewery waste, cheese whey, corn and milo, corn and wheat starch, potato waste and various sugars. The U.S. had 11 additional plants under construction and 55 proposed. West Central Soy processes soybeans to a food grade oil. Alcohol and a catalyst are then used to produce biodiesel fuel and glycerin. 

Also a pure glycerin and so-called Gum-Sugar (a syrupy coned sugar soln which would nor crystallize) was used. The small amts of vegetable oils, or paraffin oil and the so-called concentrated waste sulfite liquor, patented in Germany after WWI, also were found suitable for stretching Gelatins... 

Continuous glycerin washing of soap produced by saponification has been demonstrated in a countercurrent centrifugal extractor (38). The device achieves phase separation with as little as 0.02 specific gravity difference and accomplishes up to 10 theoretical stages of extraction. Some of the advantages over prior operations reportedly include flexibility in feed, low holdup, less waste due to more efficient separation, simple operation, rapid startup, and small space requirements. 

Liquefaction of untreated wood can also be achieved at a lower temperature of 150°C and at atmospheric pressure in the presence of a catalyst [12]. Phenolsulfonic acid, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and phosphoric acid were used as catalysts. In this acid catalyst method, phenols and polyhydric alcohols can also be used for the coexisting organic solvents. Phenol, cresol, bisphenol A and F, and so forth are successfully adoptable as the phenols. Polyethylene glycols, polyether polyols (epoxide additionally reacted polyether polyol, polyethylene terephthalate polyol) have been found to liquify wood resulting in polyol solutions [13]. Liquefaction of wood in the presence of -caprolactone, glycerin, and sulfuric acid has also been accomplished. It was confirmed in this case that liquefaction and polymerization, the latter of which produces polycaprolactone, take place in the reaction system at the same time [14]. Besides the wood material, it has become apparent that trunk and coconut parts of palm, barks, bagasse, coffee bean wastes, and used OA papers can also be liquified [15]. 

A basic ferric sulphate under the name of chemical sand is used commercially to neutralise the alkali present in waste soap lyes from which the glycerine is to be recovered. It is manufactured by mixing dry and finely powdered iron ore (oxide) with concentrated sulphuric acid, and allowing the fluid mass to spread out on an iron floor. When solidification has taken place, the mass is broken up and heated at a temperature of 200° to 280° C. for some hours, when it is ready for use, and consists essentially of ferric oxide and ferric sulphate.10... 

Residue is removed continuously from the still and is redistilled to recover the remaining glycerine the concentrated residue from the bottom of the foots still is discharged to a drum for disposal, typically to land fill as solid waste. 

The three primary waste streams from a glycerine recovery plant are skimming and filter cake from the treatment plant, contaminants in the vacuum system condensing water, and residue (foots) from the glycerine refining plant. Filter cake discharge is typically sent to a solid landfill. The concentrated residue from a foots still, when allowed to cool, will typically solidify and must be disposed of as required by the local environmental authority. 

The soap and candle industries must now be regarded as offshoots of the oil industries. Their origin is remote, but it was not until 1813, when Chevreul published his remarkable researches on the composi. tion of oils and fats, that anything was known of the true nature of the processes involved in their manufacture, Nowadays the chemist should be in paramount control of their production. The recovery. of glycerine, which at one time flowed into our rivers and streams as a waste product, was a scientific achievement of far-reaching importance, as we have indicated in our remarks on explosives, while its use in medicine is considerable. Incidentally we may mention also that glycerine, mixed with water, prevents evaporation and freezing, and this property finds application in the mechanism of gas meters. 

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