In the UK, Aston University research has shown the way forward for making renewable hydrogen and propane fuel gases from glycerol.
An organic compound, glycerol is produced mainly from fats and oils and is often used in health and beauty products.
With crude glycerol from biodiesel production plants cheap and abundant the researchers have explored its potential for making hydrogen gas and biopropane – pioneering work that could benefit the environment and reduce reliance on fuel imports.
The HYDROGAS project, supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the European Union’s reference program for doctoral education and postdoctoral training, has explored glycerol as a raw material to make hydrogen gas and biopropane.
HYDROGAS’s first objective of developing a process to generate sufficient hydrogen to convert glycerol to biopropane was successfully met.
Its second objective of obtaining high yields of biopropane, is still being investigated.
