Crude glycerol is not valuable products, as in November 2007 the sales price is about 1-2 cents / gallon. Every 10 kg of biodiesel will generate 1 kg glycerol. Although crude glycerin can be refined into salable product, it needs greater investment expended.
The traditional solution is to make glycerol for the nitroglycerine and glycerin soap. Crude glycerol may also be used for combustion, generating heat and power, however, the temperature is an important issue. At 200 and 300 ° C under fire, glycerol emit acrolein smoke, for temperature should exceed 1,000 ° C.
Assuming crude glycerin purity up to 89 percent, the price can be 1 to 2 cents / lb. However, in most cases, the crude glycerol purity is 50% to 60%, and therefore there is a discount of 33%.
The other two applications is hydrogen or Propylene Glycol, which are still in the development stage. Because the process is complex, the time when it became a mature technology, you can build centralized device.
Propylene glycol can be used as a non-toxic anti-icing agents, cooling agents. While petroleum-based glycol is cheaper now, it is non-renewable resources, highly poisonous. Propanediol from the reaction with copper chromite from glycerol, is priced at about 50 cents / gram. Now the reaction conversion efficiency is 47%.