Production and Physicochemical Analysis of Glycerol Produced from the Transesterification Reaction of Locally Processed Fatty Acids

Abstract

The study uses the transesterification reaction method to extract glycerol from three locally processed fatty acids namely; palm oil, palm kernel and shea butter. The glycerols extracted from the three fatty acids were subjected to physicochemical tests to determine if their properties are in conformity with the reported standard values.  Results of the physical properties of the substances tested show that the values were in close agreement with the results of the standard values and the results reported impervious literatures.  As such, the investigation concluded that the three fatty acids contain appreciable quantities of crude glycerol and can thus serve as a source for natural glycerol whose properties can be compared with standard glycerin products.