[Sololeum]

The market for glycerols has crashed. Any one know of anyone using it as a heater / boiler fuel?

I can't seem to get anything definite on the calorific value of glycerine / biodiesel left-over sludge - seems to range from 20 to 24 gigajoules/ton. Anyone with anything definite?

[Terran]

Intersting, glycerin is classified as a alcohol but there is a few problems.

1. Glycerin has a flash point of 160*C, so your going to have one heck of a difficult time to get it to ignite. You need at least a starting temperature of 160*C for it to undergo combustion.

2. Glycerin is hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture from the air, with water it's even more difficult to ignite.

3. It tend to decompose into other organic compounds when it's heated.

If you can find a system to get around these problems then, it may be viable.

[duff_beer_dragon]

optomists are doing anything but averting their eyes ; that said - "Dixieland", maybe you should Look Away.......


That glycerine potential sounds right, along the lines of how rocket fuel was invented - apparently the idea came from the slow burning properties of tar used in asphalt

( there's something online that might mention that - 'Jack Parsons and the curious origins of the Space Program' ),

if it can be used in an explosive, which it can, then it has potential for use in some candle-like lantern - as for ignition, try the Gonzo method, plenty of guns in the USA and bullets

[princegio]

Dear friends, I am trying to understand which one is the best method for glycerine purification in industrial scale. I know there are at least two of them:
1) conventional distillation (more energy is needed)
2) ion-exchange method (not suitable with high chlorides sweetwater)

Could you please suggest me which one could be the most convenient? Thanks in advance

[Devil]

As this is an energy forum, the usual way of generating energy from glycerol is by reacting it first with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids. This is a rather unstable fuel which is more likely to send you to Kingdom Come than to be useful. Alfred Nobel was the first to tame it with a mineral moderator. However, you don't need absolute purity for this reaction.

Commercial glycerol is usually distilled from saponification liquors, after evaporation of the water.

[ArimoDave]

One other way to tame nitroglycerin is to combine it with cotton that has also been treated with nitric and sulfuric acids. When gun cotton is plasticized with nitroglycerin it makes a very good pistol propellent (also known as a double-based smokless powder). In this state, it won't explode; it just burns, and not too rapidly in atmospheric conditions. When confined, it burns quite rapidly, however.

As an energy source, I'm not sure how polluting it is. The small amounts used in firearms, I think are relatively benign. But again, I don't know for sure.

ArimoDave

[Devil]

Nearly all explosives emit vast amounts of polluting NOx when detonated (even a nuclear explosion, which causes atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen to combine, despite the fact that there is no nitrogen in the explosive itself, except for a minute amount needed to take mechanically the U or whatever into criticality).

[baldwincng]

As a result of UK Govt incentives (Climate Change drivem not Peak Oil driven, yet) the worlds largest bio-diesel plant is being built on Teesside. It will be completed in Sept 2005, producing 250,000 tonnes a year of bio-diesel. All this and more needed to blend with normal diesel to meet EU Targets.

http://www.biofuelscorp.com/products.htm

A by product of the Energia bio-diesel process (http://www.energea.at/en_info.html) is glycerine, 23,000 tonnes of it a year will be produced.

[Caoimhan]

Glycerin can be burned. Apparently, home-brewers can use the by-product glycerin to form fire-logs by pouring it into 1 liter milk cartons packed loosely with wood shavings/sawdust. It'll burn for several hours.

I'd like to see the by-product glycerin being used to heat the reactor vessels in the biodiesel production.