Valorization of glycerol from the biodiesel industries as a renewable substrate for producing DHA using microporous zeolites modified with noble metals.

Abstract

Glycerol (Gly) is an important renewable resource derived from biodiesel industries and it is used in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. Due to increasing production of biodiesel the price of the main by-product has decline, due to this last years has had special attention. Gly is a platform molecule to obtain different high value fine chemicals like aldehydes, ketones and organic acids, including dihydroxyacetone (DHA), glyceric acid, glycolic acid and lactic acid. By liquid phase oxidation of Gly under mild conditions, using microporous zeolites modified with the incorporation of noble metals such as Pt and Au, it was possible to obtain an interesting production of DHA.