An update on the future prospects of glycerol polymers

Abstract

Abstract Glycerol, a water‐soluble polyol, is currently used in a wide variety of markets, e.g. as a sweetener in drinks, as an additive in the food and cosmetics industry, or as an antifreeze agent, to name a few. The blooming biodiesel production has created an excess supply of glycerol by‐product. Researchers all around the world are actively exploring strategies to utilize this cheap and abundantly available biobased molecule. To date, glycerol‐based polymers have only been examined extensively for use in biomedical applications; however, the use of biobased crude glycerol is not viable for such applications due to the presence of impurities such as methanol and residual fatty acids from the biodiesel production process. However, the increased volumes of glycerol generated from biodiesel production have stimulated the research on its use in various other industrial applications such as the production of commodity chemicals, polymers etc. In this article, we summarize some of the efforts to valorize glycerol for polymeric applications such as polyurethanes, polyhydroxyalkanoates and adhesives. © 2021 The Authors. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry.