Production of greases from crude glycerol

Biodiesel is one of the most promising renewable energy source and its production increases every year. But there is one drawback - need of utilization of glycerol, the main by-product of this process. The article presents methods of utilization of crude glycerol by its thickening with various inorganic salts to produce greases. It was discovered that metal salt reacted with soaps contained in glycerol obtained from biodiesel-production facilities with formation of greases. By-products of these processes was methanol contained in crude glycerol and, in some cases, purified glycerol.