Thermally assisted methylation of glycerol by tetramethylammonium hydroxide thermochemolysis

- Production of high value methylated derivatives of glycerol is discussed.
- Thermally assisted methylation of glycerol using tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH).
- TMAH methylation can be performed in flow through reactors with efficient glycerol conversion.

A novel method to rapidly methylate glycerol and generate products having greater value has been demonstrated using tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis. Through analysis with GC-MS, it is shown that the reaction between TMAH and glycerol at elevated temperatures produces a series of mono, di and tri-methoxylated glycerols with potential applications as organic solvents. While other methylation reactions can only be carried out in batch reactions, thermally assisted methylation using TMAH can be performed in a continuous flow process.