Properties of Refined Glycerine
- Refined glycerine is a colourless liquid
- It is an odorless liquid.
- Glycerol is a viscous liquid in nature.
- Glycerol is soluble in water and it’s hygroscopic in nature.
- Glycerol is a sweet tasting compound.
- Glycerol is a non-toxic.
Production of Refined Glycerine
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- From fats and oils
Refined glycerine is obtained from the saponification or transesterification of triglycerides in a stoichometric quantity. Glycerol is produced as a co-product in the production of long carboxylate salts used for the manufacture of soap. Refined glycerine is a byproduct of the production of biodiesel via transesterification. Refined glycerine is manufactured from the mixture of Triglycerides when they are treated with an alcohol such as ethanol, with a catalytic base to give glycerol and ethyl esters of fatty acids.
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- Synthetic Glyerol
Synthetic glycerol is synthesized from propylene by epichlorohydrin process. Epichlorohydrin process involves the chlorination of propylene to epichlorohydrin and the epichlorohydrin is then hydrolyzed to give glycerol.
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- Food Industry
Refined glycerine is used as a humectants, solvent, food additive and sweetener for the preservation of food. Glycerol is also used as filler in the preparation of low-fat foods and as a thickening agent. Glycerol contributes approximately about 27 kilocalories of sugar content in sugar & it’s 60% sweet as Sucrose.
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- Pharmaceutical Industry
Refined glycerine is used in the medical applications as a means of improving smoothness, providing lubrication and as humectants. Glycerol is used as laxative and induces a hyper osmotic effect. Glycerol can cause rapid temporary decrease in internal pressure of the eyes and can be useful for the initial emergency treatment of severely elevated eye pressure. In tablets and capsules formation, Glycerin is used as a tablet holding agent.
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- Personal care applications
Glycerol is used in personal care applications such as skin care products, shaving cream, hair care products, soaps and water-based personal lubricants. Refined glycerine is an integral component for the preparation of glycerine soap for imparting fragnance in it. Refined glycerine is used to prevent excessive drying and evaporation.
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- Antifreeze
Glycerol is used as a antifreezing agent for automotive applications because of its lower freezing point and non toxicity. Glycerol is an important component of solvents for enzymatic reagents due to the depression of the freezing temperature. Refined glycerine is used as a cryoprotectant to reduce damage by ice crystals for microorganisms that are stored in frozen conditions.
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- Chemical intermediate
Glycerol is used as an intermediate to produce various explosives such as nitroglycerin, dynamite, gelignite and propellants like cordite. An important usage of crude glycerin as an additive to biomass for a renewable energy source. Glycerol is utilized in the hydrogen gas production unit and glycerine acetate. Glycerol is used as a conversion to propylene glycerol, acrolein, ethanol and epichlorohydrin.
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- Other applications
10% Glycerol solution prevents tannins from precipitating in ethanol extracts of plants. Glycerol is used as an alternative to ethanol as a solvent in herbal extractions. Glycerine is an integral component of e-liquid in electronic cigarettes. Glycerol is a stable preserving agent for botanical extracts that, when utilized in proper concentrations in an extraction solvent base.
