The synthesis of glycerine by the hydrolysis of epichlorohydrin with sodium hydroxide solution was studied.
The factor which mostly affects the yield of glycerine is the concentration of sodium hydroxide, and the lower its concentration the higher the yield is. Moreover, the reaction temperature, the dropping method … whether to drop epichlorohydrin or sodium hydroxide solution to the reaction solution ……, and the dropping velocity were found other factors affecting the yield.
The maximum yield was 85% for 1% sodium hydroxide solution.
As it is necessary to use low concentration solution of sodium hydroxide for elevating the yield, the concentration of glycerine produced is accordingly low. Therefore, sodium hydroxide may not be economical for industrial glycerine synthesis in case epichlorohydrin hydrolysis.
In addition, the side reaction in this synthesis is considered as the polymerisation of glycidol.