Production of partially refined waste glycerol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9868682-B2
Application number	US-201414912104-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2014
Priority date	Aug 19, 2013
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a novel glycerol purification process that produces partially refined waste glycerol for a variety of industrial applications. The disclosure encompasses a salt-containing partially refined glycerol composition that is suitable as a fermentation grade glycerol.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process of producing partially refined waste glycerol by refining crude glycerol containing organic impurities, said process comprising: subjecting crude glycerol to a hydrophobic solvent to produce a mixture of crude glycerol and hydrophobic solvent; separating the mixture of crude glycerol and hydrophobic solvent to produce a deoiled (DO) glycerol and a phase containing hydrophobic solvent and organic impurities; drying said DO glycerol to produce a deoiled and dewatered (DOW) glycerol; subjecting a polar solvent to said DOW glycerol to produce a mixture of polar solvent and DOW glycerol and precipitating a salt from the mixture of polar solvent and DOW glycerol; and separating the mixture of polar solvent and DOW glycerol into a light phase containing a deoiled, dewatered and desalted (DOWS) glycerol and the polar solvent and a heavy phase containing the salt, wherein said process further comprises: partially evaporating about 75 percent of said DOW glycerol as a glycerol distillate without salt; recovering a remaining portion of said DOW glycerol in an evaporation discharge bottom; and adding the polar solvent to said evaporation discharge bottom to precipitate salt and create a deoiled, dewatered and desalted (DOWS) glycerol.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein said DOWS glycerol is a fermentation grade glycerol.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein said DOW glycerol comprises less than about 0.5 percent water.

4. The process of claim 1 , further comprising partially evaporating the DOW glycerol before subjecting it to the polar solvent.

5. The process of claim 1 , further comprising the step of evaporating the polar solvent from the DOWS glycerol to produce a purified DOWS glycerol.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein said evaporating comprises flash evaporation.

7. The process of claim 2 , wherein said fermentation grade glycerol is salt-containing glycerol.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein said polar solvent is isopropanol.

Assignees

• Reg Life Sciences Llc

Inventors

• Ko Myong K
• Sanchez-Riera Fernando A
• Li Simon
• Liao Perry Y

Classifications

• C07C29/88 Primary

  by treatment giving rise to a chemical modification of at least one compound (chemisorption C07C29/76) · CPC title

• C07C31/225

  Glycerol · CPC title

• C07C29/86

  by liquid-liquid treatment · CPC title

• C07C29/76

  by physical treatment · CPC title

• C07C29/94

  Use of additives, e.g. for stabilisation · CPC title