Vegetable Glycerin
Also known as glycerol, VG is a viscous liquid that is colourless
and odourless, it has a sweet taste, is non-toxic and has GRAS
status from the FDA. As well as its use in e-liquids, it is used as
a sweetener in foods, emulsifier and is in many pharmaceutical
compositions. It can be prepared synthetically from petrochemicals
such as the process employed by DOW Chemical, from animal
fats ie beef, or from naturally occurring vegetable oils such as
that from the soy bean or palm. As the name suggests, only plant
derived glycerin is used in e-liquids, so it is not derived from any
animal sources.
Fats and lipids consist of a molecule of glycerol with up to three
fatty acid esters, named as mono, di and triglycerides, with the
latter being the most common.
In order to isolate glycerin from fatty acids, the esters must be
broken which can be through methods such as saponification,
transesterification or hydrolysis. In fact, saponification is how soap
is made using the method shown below, while transesterification
is a method used to produce biodiesel, where crude glycerin is
produced as a side product in both cases.
Vegetable glycerin that is produced from vegetable oils can then be purified using
processes such as vacuum distillation, anion exchange resins and filtration through
activated charcoal to yield a very high purity product.
A Note on Submissions to
the Poison Centres Notification
Under the European Union’s regulation for Classification,
Labelling and Packaging (CLP), this notification measure
seeks to harmonise the information which industries provide to
national poison centres throughout the EU/EEA about mixtures
targeting the European market.
This will come into force from 2020 for consumer products,
including e-liquids, and it will impact producers and importers
of chemicals in this industry. The first deadline which will impact
the vape industry is January 1, 2020.
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is developing the
poison centres notification (PCN) portal for data submission
with the first version due to be launched early 2019. For the
latest on how this process may be affected by Brexit, go to
echa.europa.eu/uk-withdrawal-from-the-eu
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