Biocatalysis

Biodiesel production converts triglyceride oils into fatty acid methyl esters, generating vast amounts of glycerine as a byproduict. The enormous glut of glycerine has depressed the market price to near zero.  Crude glycerine prices have dropped as low as $0.02 per pound last year before recovering to $0.06 – $0.10 per pound. But a small company in Virginia called Xcel Plus has found a use for all that glycerine byproduct–make it into fuel.

The Xcel Plus process cracks glycerine into two fuels, one of which (at around 50 percent by weight) is Glyclene and is suitable for turbine engines for power generation. 

The potential to convert crude glycerine to fuel has the potential to generate a profit stream either to refiners such as Xcel Plus, or to biodiesel producers in the form of higher prices for crude glycerine. Xcel Plus estimated that there is more than 150,000 tons of crude glycerine produced by biodiesel operations in the US. Xcel Plus said in January that it had contracts for up to 200 million gallons of GlyClene.

A patent application EP2002009 A2 from Rice University (Houston, TX USA)  has recently been published disclosing an anaerobic fermentation of glycerol using an engineered E. coli. The value added products include ethanol (?), formate, succinate, and 1,2-propanediol. SInce there is a glut of glycerol now due to its production as a byproduct of biodiesel, expect a lot of ideas on things that can be produced from glycerol.