Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

Legend of the terms:
Transesterification – chemical conversion of one acid ester to another ester
Distillation – a method of separating liquids based on various boiling points
The producers of ROME in the Czech Republic are e.g. SETUZA a.s., AGROPODNIK, a.s.,
Jihlava and KL-OIL s.r.o.
7.3 | The production of epichlorhydrine from renewable resources
Epichlorhydrine 7 is a key raw material for the production of epoxide resins 8 . It was
formerly produced almost exclusively from propylene, a raw material obtained from
crude oil. Presently, epichlorhydrine is produced in a combined manner. The synthesis of
dichlorhydrine, the by-product, is still partly performed from propylene and partly from
glycerine. Glycerine is a substance obtained from renewable vegetable resources.
The main benefits of this glycerine-based production technology are:
● high safety – the technology requires neither liquefied chlorine nor liquefied
propylene,
● lower environmental impacts – lower production of all waste types, lower consumption
of comparable raw materials,
● low specific consumption of all types of energy,
● high flexibility,
● replacement of the key production raw material (propylene – from crude oil) with
glycerine from a renewable resource,
● competitiveness in terms of costs compared to other market representatives that
uses several-fold higher production capacities.
7 epichlorhydrine – an organic compound that is used in the production of paper sizing agents and epoxide resins used for
the production of liquid and powder coating compositions, the production of composites, in the building industry, electrical
engineering and electronics
8 epoxide resins – a macromolecular organic substance used for the production of strong adhesives that adhere well to metals,
glass, porcelain, leather, wood; epoxide resins also are used in the production of coating compositions and laminating
agents; casting resins are mainly used in the electrical industry
92 | 93