Thursday, April 05, 2012

Acrylic Acid from Glycerin


Acrylic acid is derived presently from petroleum and is an important monomer in the industrial manufacture of plastics and other polymers. An alternate source of acrylic acid is in the bacterial fermentation of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA) and the subsequent oxidation of 3-HPA to acrylic acid.
One route of transformation of glycerol is its conversion to acrolein by the dehydration of this by-product. Acrolein is used as raw material for the
production of acrylic acid, medicines, detergents, acrylic acid esters and fiber treatments among others.
Glycerol is a raw material derived from biomass; it has high oxygen content and being thermally unstable and can be transformed in oxygenated chemicals by deoxygenating processes.

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