Treatment of Glycerin Pitch from Biodiesel Production

Glycerin pitch, a by-product of biodiesel was generated from a biodiesel plant through transesterification process in- creased drastically as tremendously growth of biodiesel industry. The excess glycerine pitch may become an environ- mental problem since it cannot be disposed to the environment. The pitch is contained many other material such as soaps, remaining catalysts, water and esters formed throughout the process. In this paper, treatment of glycerine pitch is obtained the glycerol purity is up to 87.14wt % with relatively low ash content (0.00397% (w/w)), MONG of 5.503% (w/w) and moisture content was 7.35% (w/w). Several analyses using Fourier transform infra red (FTIR) and high per- formance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were employed to determine the purity and the compositions of glycerol pitch and recovered glycerol.