Glycerine

About This Product

Glycerine, propane-1,2,3-triol with formula C3H8O3 and CAS number 56-81-5, is a clear, colourless, odourless, viscous liquid with a sweet taste, fully miscible with water. It is recovered rather than synthesised, arising whenever a triglyceride is split by saponification, hydrolysis or transesterification. In chemical manufacture its value is that it carries three hydroxyl groups on a small molecule, which makes it a trifunctional building block. In alkyd resin production it reacts with polybasic acids and drying oils to form the branched polyester backbone of the resin, and the third hydroxyl is what allows crosslinking and therefore film formation. In polyurethanes it is used as a starter for polyether polyols, where the number of hydroxyls on the starter determines the functionality and hence the rigidity of the finished foam. It is also nitrated to nitroglycerin for explosives and pharmaceuticals, and is a feedstock for epichlorohydrin and for propylene glycol. Since biodiesel expansion flooded the market with crude glycerine, refining capacity rather than supply has become the constraint on the high-purity grades. It is used in alkyd resins and coatings, polyurethane polyols, explosives, antifreeze, tobacco processing and as a chemical feedstock. Bio Green Chem supplies crude, technical and refined glycerine to specification on glycerol content, moisture, ash, MONG, colour, chlorides and heavy metals.