Glycerine can be used as an environmentally friendly solvent in extractive distillation, however, due to its thermal decomposition at high temperatures, there might be some limitations for its applicability.
The autoignition temperature of glycerol is 370 deg C which is pretty high and therefore it should work well as a solvent in high temperature applications as well. However there are some limitations in its use. At temperature 280 deg C, a toxic component acrolein (propenal) forms. Acetaldehyde also forms along with acrolein. At higher temperature, CO, CO2, CH4 and H2 form in addition to these two products.
Thank you for your answer.
The Glycerol boiling point is around 290 deg C, thus vacuum conditions are required to separated it from other components (e.g. water). Is there reported the decomposition reaction of glycerol which forms acrolein?
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