TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SYNTHETIC GLYCEROL
PROCESS FEATURES
The production of synthetic glycerol constitutes the second major end use of epichlorohydrin (after epoxy resins). The CONSER process is supported by extensive research oriented to optimize the epichlorohydrin hydrolysis conditions and the purification methods.
CONSER, leader in epichlorohydrin technology, is in position to supply know how and technology for production of synthetic glycerol of high quality, meeting the most stringent pharmacopeia standards.
REFERENCES
Location S.I.R. Italy
PROCESS DESCRIPTION
The production of high purity glycerol from epichlorohydrin involves several steps which follow in this order:
a) Low pressure alkaline hydrolysis of epichlorohydrin to diluted crude glycerol solution.
Soda ash is the preferred alkali and it is produced by carbonation of a caustic soda solution.
The reaction proceeds as follows:
CH2O-CH-CH2Cl+NaHCO3+H20 — ->
— -> CH2OH-CHOH-CH2OH+NaCl+CO2
b) Evaporative - crystallization system to concentrate the dilute crude glycerol and to precipitate major portions of sodium chloride salt.
c) Vacuum-steam distillation processing step whereby the concentrated crude glycerol stream is purified and upgraded to high purity glycerol product.
Polymers, remaining salt and water plus impurities are separated.
d) Carbon treatment of the glycerol product to remove color bodies and in general to improve the quality towards the meeting of the several rigid U.S.P. specifications.
