Upgrading of Biobased Glycerol to Glycerol Carbonate as a Tool to Reduce the CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions of the Biodiesel Fuel Life Cycle

oleh: Biagio Anderlini, Alberto Ughetti, Emma Cristoni, Luca Forti, Luca Rigamonti, Fabrizio Roncaglia

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-12-01

Deskripsi

With regards to oil-based diesel fuel, the adoption of bio-derived diesel fuel was estimated to reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by approximately 75%, considering the whole life cycle. In this paper, we present a novel continuous-flow process able to transfer an equimolar amount of CO<sub>2</sub> (through urea) to glycerol, producing glycerol carbonate. This represents a convenient tool, able to both improve the efficiency of the biodiesel production through the conversion of waste streams into added-value chemicals and to beneficially contribute to the whole carbon cycle. By means of a Design of Experiments approach, the influence of key operating variables on the product yield was studied and statistically modeled.