Valorisation of Glycerol to Fine Chemicals and Fuels

Abstract

The selective transformation of biomass-derived compounds to useful fine chemicals and fuels has developed rapidly in recent years, and biomass compounds will soon become one of the main resource contributors for the production of chemicals. In the near future, it is expected that biomass derived compounds will contribute substantially to global chemical production along with fossil-based analogues. Although, there is still debate about the sustainability of the usage of biomass-derived molecules, it is important to emphasise that effort has been made to use biomass in the most efficient way, and that the biomass resources used are not suitable for food purposes. In this review we will focus to present selected examples on the transformation of glycerol in three distinct areas; (i) glycerol oxidation, (ii) glycerol hydrogenolysis and (iii) glycerol aqueous reforming, using supported metal nanoparticles as the chosen catalysts.