Purification and use of crude Green Glycerol from the transesterification of triglycerides in the formulation of analcohol gel hand sanitizer

Abstract

Abstract As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic and the greater demand for alcohol gel sanitizers, the regulatory guidelines on sanitizer quality have been altered. The aim of this study was to produce green glycerol and an alcohol gel hand sanitizer. The ethanol content was measured by headspace (HS) gas chromatography (GC) using a flame ionization detector (FID). The thermal behavior of the gels is influenced by the presence of glycerol, which is an aspect that confirms the possible network interactions formed. The relative densities of the samples were between 0.887–0.890 g/cm³. The incorporation of glycerol did not significantly alter the pH of the final formulation, which was near neutrality. Both alcohol gels exhibited a high average apparent viscosity, greater than 20,000 cP, with no statistically significant difference between them (p > 0.05). The addition of glycerol did not change the in vitro spreadability of the gel alcohol, which remained at 530.6 mm² for both samples.