As the production of biodiesel fuel grows the problem of glycerol utilization becomes more urgent. One of the possible solutions is the application of glycerol as a feedstock for the production of valuable organic materials e.g. polylactide. We previously found that iridium(I) pyridyl-carbene complex (below) acts as an efficient catalyst for glycerol dehydrogenation in the presence of potassium hydroxide, thus making glycerol a convenient source of hydrogen and potassium lactate.<br/>Here we present the development of this catalytic approach toward the use of glycerol as a hydrogenating agent for unsaturated triglycerides. We show that it is possible to transfer hydrogen from glycerol to various unsaturated compounds when the reaction is conducted in a sealed reactor in the presence of unsaturated substrate.<br/>We were particularly interested in hydrogenation of unsaturated triglycerides (vegetable oils) under these conditions, since saturated fatty acids are more desirable biodiesel precursors than unsaturated acids or triglycerides. The conditions were optimized giving the degree of hydrogenation higher than 90%. The procedure for separation of glycerol, potassium lactate and fatty acids was developed.

Hydrogenation of unsaturated triglycerides via catalytic hydrogen transfer from glycerol

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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