A robust and scalable continuous flow process for glycerol carbonate

Seger Van Mileghem^a,b, Wim M. De Borggraeve^b, Ian R. Baxendale^a

• ^aUniversity of Durham, Department of Chemistry, South Road, DH1 3LE Durham, UK
• ^bKU Leuven, Division of Molecular Design and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium

With glycerol being a bulk waste product, the interest in converting it to other value-added products is steadily increasing. A scalable continuous flow process was developed for the synthesis of glycerol carbonate (2-GLC) from glycerol and dimethyl carbonate on a hydroxide functional resin. High conversion and selectivity were obtained while the residence times were typically shorter than 10 min. Continuous production of 2-GLC was achieved in high throughput and with improved processing metrics, creating the foundations for a production level process.

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