Propanediol Production from Glycerol

Abstract

Crude oils have been primary sources of energy and fuels, such as petrodiesel fuels. However, significant public concerns about the sustainability, price fluctuations, and adverse environmental impact of crude oils have emerged since the 1970s. Thus, biooils and biooil-based biodiesel fuels have emerged as alternatives to crude oils and crude oil-based petrodiesel fuels in recent decades. Nowadays, although petrodiesel fuels are still used extensively, biodiesel fuels are being used increasingly in the transportation and power sectors. There have also been great public concerns about the by-product of biodiesel fuels, glycerol, in recent years as waste materials were produced in large volumes. In the light of these concerns, glycerol has been converted into biofuels, such as biohydrogen and biochemicals, for example propanediols. Although there have been a number of reviews and book chapters on the propanediol production from glycerol, there has been no review of the 25-most-cited articles in this field. Thus, this chapter reviews these most-cited articles by highlighting their key findings on propanediol production from glycerol as a case study of biochemical production from glycerol. Then, it discusses these key findings.