University of Manchester Team Solves Glycerol Problem
(MenMedia) …Dr Constantinos Theodoropoulos and Prof Colin Webb from the University’s School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science decided to tackle the issue of a worldwide glut of glycerol.
Growing global demand for biodiesel means markets cannot absorb the increase in the supply of glycerol, a colourless, treacle-like compound often used in the pharmaceutical industry. That has led to the value of glycerol crashing and the search has been on to uncover new applications for the product.
The university team has developed new uses for the material by using a bacteria to convert glycerol into succinic acid, which is used in a variety of products from medicines to food flavours.
They have also worked out how to do it on an industrial scale which is predicted to lead to the construction of new biorefineries to process glycerol, and will make biodiesel production cheaper by generating revenue from the by-product. READ MORE
