Glycerol electro-reforming in alkaline electrolysis cells for the simultaneous production of value-added chemicals and pure hydrogen – Mini-review

Glycerol is a cheap, non-toxic, and renewable by-product of the rapid expansion of biodiesel and soap producers around the world. Glycerol electroforming is a method of oxidizing glycerol into valuable chemicals of interest to the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, polymer, and food industries. One of the technologies that have been studied over the past decades is to couple glycerol oxidation with the production of pure hydrogen in an electrolysis cell (so-called electrolyzer), which has shown the advantage of consuming a much lower theoretical amount of electricity than conventional water electrolysis. The efficiency of this device is influenced by the nature, structure, and composition of the electrode material. This mini-review concerns the understanding of glycerol electro-oxidation, a brief state of the art of nanomaterials currently used to prepare electrode materials, and some results concerning the performance of electrolyzers in alkaline conditions that combine the efficient production of value-added chemicals and hydrogen.