Valorization of glycerol: Continuous flow synthesis of value-added oxirane building blocks

The progressive depletion of fossil resources and a global environmental awareness stimulates research toward a transition for more sustainable resources. The last three decades have witnessed developments for the valorization of biomass, and various chemicals of industrial interest can nowadays be derived from bioresources. A wide range of specific molecules named “biobased platforms” can be obtained from raw biomass through biotechnological, chemical or physical treatments. These platforms are compounds of low molecular mass and complexity that can be used as potential building blocks for the synthesis of value-added chemicals. Among them, glycerol occupies a special place: it is widely available as a by-product of the biodiesel production and can readily be transformed into a large variety of value-added products. We present herein a synthetic pathway starting from biobased glycerol toward useful oxirane building blocks traditionally produced from petrobased propene.