Abstract
The production of glycerol from the synthesis of biodiesel has led to a market surplus of this polyhydric alcohol and additional research to find new applications for this versatile chemical. This study involves the use of inverse gas chromatography (IGC) to characterize the solute–solvent interactions between glycerol and a homologous series of aliphatic alcohols, in which the latter components are at infinite dilution in the glycerol, which is the stationary phase contained in a packed GC column. The IGC experiments were conducted between 51.5 and 111 °C for the n-alcohols ranging from methanol to n-butanol. All of the n-alcohol homologs exhibited positive deviations from Raoult’s law as based on mole fraction activity coefficients values ranging from 1.86 to 14.4. The measured mole fraction activity coefficients of the alcoholic solutes in glycerol showed good agreement with literature values, and in some cases with those predicted using existing theoretical models. The mole fraction activity coefficients increased going from methanol to n-butanol, reflecting the change in the alcohol’s cohesive energy densities relative to that for glycerol. The total solubility parameter of glycerol calculated from IGC data was found to be 34.8 MPa1/2 which is in good agreement with that obtained using Hansen solubility parameter approach (31.6 MPa1/2). This data can be used to characterize the solvent properties of glycerol as well as to provide thermodynamic data for the removal of the alcoholic solutes from glycerol.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ma F, Hanna MA (1999) Biodiesel production: a review. Bioresour Technol 70:1–15
Kenar JA (2007) Glycerol as a platform chemical: sweet opportunities on the horizon? Lipid Technol 19:249–253
King JW, Holliday RL, List GR (1999) Hydrolysis of soybean oil in a subcritical water flow reactor. Green Chem 1:261–264
Behr A, Eilting J, Irawadi K, Leschinski J, Lindner F (2008) Improved utilisation of renewable resources: new important derivatives of glycerol. Green Chem 10:13–30
Petrou EC, Pappis CP (2009) Biofuels: a survey on pros and cons. Energ Fuel 23:1055–1066
Pagliaro M, Rossi M (2010) The future of glycerol, 2nd edn. RSC Publishing, Cambridge
Pagliaro M, Ciriminna R, Kimura H, Rossi M, Pina CD (2007) From glycerol to value-added products. Angew Chem Int Ed 46:4434–4440
Robergs RA, Griffin SE (1998) Glycerol: biochemistry, pharmacokinetics and clinical and practical applications. Sports Med 26:145–167
Sharma SC, Yang RK (1986) Chewing gum compositions containing novel sweetener delivery systems and method of preparation. US Patent 4,597,970
Melero JA, van Grieken R, Morales G, Paniagua M (2007) Acidic mesoporous silica for the acetylation of glycerol: synthesis of bioadditives to petrol fuel. Energ Fuel 21:1782–1791
Wolfson A, Dlugy C, Shotland Y (2007) Glycerol as a green solvent for high product yields and selectivities. Environ Chem Lett 2:67–71
Cumming APC, Morton F (1952) Solvent extraction of phenol from coal-tar hydrocarbons: the use of glycerol, triethylene glycol and their aqueous solutions as solvents. J Appl Chem 2:314–323
Voelkel A, Strzemiecka B, Adamska K, Milczewska K (2009) Inverse gas chromatography as a source of physicochemical data. J Chromatogr A 1216:1551–1566
Eckert CA, Newman BA, Nicolaides GL, Long TC (1981) Measurement and application of limiting activity coefficients. AIChE J 27:33–40
Trampe DB, Eckert CA (1993) Dew point technique for limiting activity coefficient in nonionic solutions. AIChE J 39:1045–1050
Kojima K, Zhang S, Hiaki T (1997) Measuring methods of infinite dilution activity coefficients and a database for systems including water. Fluid Phase Equilibr 131:145–179
King JW, List GR (1990) A solution thermodynamic study of soybean oil/solvent systems by inverse gas chromatography. J Am Oil Chem Soc 67:424–430
Zeng C, Li J, Wang D, Chen T, Zhao C, Chen C (2006) Infinite dilution activity and diffusion coefficients in polymers by inverse gas chromatography. J Chem Eng Data 51:93–98
Srinivas K, Potts TM, King JW (2009) Characterization of solvent properties of methyl soyate by inverse gas chromatography and solubility parameters. Green Chem 11:1581–1588
Voelkel A, Kopczynski T (1998) Inverse gas chromatography in the examination of organic compounds: polarity and solubility parameters of isoquinoline derivatives. J Chromatogr A 795:349–357
Adamska K, Bellinghausen R, Voelkel A (2008) New procedure for the determination of Hansen solubility parameters by inverse gas chromatography. J Chromatogr A 1195:146–149
Martire DE (1963) Gas chromatography. In: Fowler L (ed) Academic Press, New York, pp 33–54
Fredenslund A, Jones RL, Prausnitz JM (1975) Group-contribution estimation of activity coefficients in non-ideal liquid mixtures. AIChE J 21:1086–1099
Bobbitt NS, King JW (2010) Physicochemical characterization of dilute n-alcohol/biodiesel mixtures by inverse gas chromatography. J Chromatogr A 1217:7898–7906
Nitta T, Moringa K, Katayama T (1982) Gas chromatographic study of limiting activity coefficients of organic solutes in squalene. Ind Eng Chem Fundamen 21:396–401
Yaws CL, Narasimhan PK, Gabbula C (2009) Yaws’ handbook of Antoine coefficients for vapor pressure. 2nd electronic edn. Knovel Corporation, available online at http://www.knovel.com
Ge M-N, Ma J-L, Wu C-G (2010) Activity coefficients at infinite dilution of alkanes, alkenes and alkyl benzenes in glycerol using gas–liquid chromatography. J Chem Eng Data 55:1714–1717
Hansen CM (2007) Hansen solubility parameters: a user’s handbook, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA
Jayasri A, Yaseen M (1980) Nomograms for solubility parameter. J Coatings Technol 52:41–45
Dow Chemical Corporation (accessed Jun. 2009) Miscibility of organic solvents with glycerine. http://www.dow.com/glycerine/resources/table23.htm
Redelius P (2007) Hansen solubility parameters of asphalt, bitumen, and crude oils. In: Hansen CM (ed) Hansen solubility parameters: a user’s handbook. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 151–176
Cruickshank AJB, Gainey BW, Hicks CP, Letcher TM, Moody RW, Young CL (1969) Gas–liquid chromatographic determination of cross-term second virial coefficients using glycerol. Trans Faraday Soc 65:1014–1031
Castells RC, Arancibia EL, Nardillo AM (1982) Solution and adsorption of hydrocarbons in glycerol as studied by gas–liquid chromatography. J Phys Chem 86:4456–4460
Martire DE (1966) Solute adsorption at the gas–liquid interface in gas–liquid chromatography. Anal Chem 38:244–255
Locke DC (1968) Chromatographic study of solutions of hydrocarbons in acetonitrile. J Gas Chromatogr 35:24–36
Tiegs D, Gmehling J, Medina A, Soares A, Bastos J, Alessi P, Kikic I, Schiller M and Menke J (1986) Activity coefficients at infinite dilution. vol. 9, Part 1. DECHEMA Chemistry Data Series, Frankfurt, Germany
Tizvar R, McLean DD, Kates M, Dube MA (2009) Optimal separation of glycerol and methyl oleate via liquid–liquid extraction. J Am Oil Chemists Soc 54:1541–1550
Chiu C-W, Goff MJ, Suppes GJ (2005) Distribution of methanol and catalysts between biodiesel and glycerin phases. AIChE J 51:1274–1278
King JW (1989) Fundamentals and applications of supercritical fluid extraction in chromatographic science. J Chromatogr Sci 27:355–364
King JW (1995) Determination of the solubility parameter of soybean oil by inverse gas chromatography. Lebensm-Wiss U-Technol 28:190–195
Zhou W, Boocock DGB (2006) Phase distributions of alcohol, glycerol, and catalyst in the transesterification of soybean oil. J Am Oil Chemists Soc 83:1047–1052
Alli A, Hazer B, Baysal BM (2006) Determination of solubility parameters of cross-linked macromonomeric initiators based on propylene glycol. Euro Polymer J 42:3024–3031
Roy SK, Chanda M (2006) Plastics technology handbook: plastics engineering series. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Fedors RF (1974) A method for estimating both the solubility parameters and the molar volumes of liquids. Polymer Eng Sci 14:147–154
Gafner S, Bergeron C, McCollom MM, Cooper LM, McPhail KL, Gerwick WH, Angerhofer CK (2004) Evaluation of the efficiency of three different solvent systems to extract triterpene saponins from roots of Pana quinquefolius using high-performance liquid chromatography. J Agric Food Chem 52:1546–1550
Acknowledgments
Joel Vincent acknowledges the University of Arkansas Honors College for a grant which made this study possible. We would also like to acknowledge Mr. Harold Watson of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas for his technical assistance during various aspects of this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Vincent, J.D., Srinivas, K. & King, J.W. Characterization of the Solvent Properties of Glycerol Using Inverse Gas Chromatography and Solubility Parameters. J Am Oil Chem Soc 89, 1585–1597 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-012-2070-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-012-2070-6