How to sell crude and refined glycerine in Europe

Five numbers: glycerol content, water, ash and salts, MONG and residual methanol. Add pH, origin and monthly volume and a European buyer can price the cargo in one reply. Crude typically runs 50 to 88 % glycerol, with 80 % min the common refiner basis.

Matter organic non-glycerol: everything organic in the parcel that is not glycerol, such as soaps, esters and free fatty acid carry-over. It is calculated rather than measured, as 100 minus glycerol, minus water, minus ash, with ISO 2464 covering the calculation. A refiner prices against it directly, because it is what fouls the process.

The feed material catalogue allows up to 0.5 % in crude glycerine under entry 13.8.1 of Regulation (EU) No 68/2013, and well-stripped traded material sits below that. Above roughly the same figure the cargo becomes a classification and transport question, because methanol itself is a Class 3 flammable liquid, UN 1230.

Yes, as catalogue entry 13.8.1 material within its written ceilings: up to 0.5 % methanol, salts up to 7.5 % and MONG up to 4 %, with potassium and sodium declared above 1.5 % and nickel above 20 ppm. Above the ceilings the cargo is industrial, and the price remembers.

Crude glycerine under CN 1520 00 00; pure glycerol at roughly 95 % or above under 2905 45 00. The code decides duty and statistics, so it is worth fixing before the first shipment rather than after.

Crude glycerine is listed in Annex IX Part A at point (i) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, and Article 27(2) lets Annex IX feedstocks count twice their energy content toward the transport targets. Part B feedstocks such as used cooking oil sit under a 1.7 % energy cap instead -- a different and less favourable neighbourhood.

Only where the cargo carries compliance value into the fuel or biogas chain. Uncertified material sells to technical and industrial buyers at the price that market pays. Whether the certificate is worth buying is a question of where your cargo's analysis already points.

There is no single published price; the market prices per tonne of contained glycerol, off the refining parity for clean 80 % plus crude and off the energy floor for rougher material. MONG, methanol, salt and water each take a specific discount. A seller who fixes those four numbers before selling keeps the difference.

Yes, but into a different list. Sub-80 % crude realistically sells to biogas and some feed outlets at substrate pricing rather than to refiners. If the volume justifies it, upstream changes in the transesterification and washing step can move the crude a grade.

Pure glycerol solidifies below 17.8 °C, and crude with its water and salts is only slightly more forgiving. Winter cargoes ride heated or insulated ISO tanks and IBCs; solidified cargo is not spoiled, merely late and expensive to move.

About 1.261 g/cm3 at 20 °C for pure glycerol, a quarter heavier than water. A road tanker reaches its weight limit before it looks full, so glycerine freight is payload maths rather than volume maths.

Heated or insulated ISO tanks of 20 to 26 tonnes are the standard, IBCs and drums for smaller and speciality lots, barge and parcel tanker for programme volumes. The viscosity and the melting point pick the equipment, and the equipment picks part of the freight bill.

All three work. Road dominates short haul with heated equipment in winter, rail and barge earn their keep on programme volumes into the ARA range, where heated barges take the winter load.

For lots without a bulk route, yes: drums and IBCs load into 40-ft containers, with the filling temperature and the route climate planned so the cargo arrives pumpable. It is slower per tonne than bulk and it suits speciality and first-trial volumes.

Monthly. Glycerine arrives continuously whether or not it is sold, and the term market pays for predictability: a reliable home for every batch, with analysis, certification and tank logistics agreed once. One-off tanks sell into schedule holes at whatever those pay.

The certificate of analysis with the five numbers, a safety data sheet stating methanol content and pH per batch, origin documentation, the certification chain where compliance value is claimed, and the CN classification. That set answers the questions every buyer asks in the first reply.

Established producers with a consistent analysis work from the COA and a sealed retention sample. New relationships, new streams and off-spec cargoes go through a sample first, and the market treats that as normal. The retention bottle is what settles any later argument.

Documentary terms or prepayment on a new relationship; open terms arrive with the analysis history. In this trade the record of cargoes shipped on specification is the credit reference.

Traded crude glycerine moves as a product, with a commercial specification and a safety data sheet. Whether a particular stream is a by-product or a waste under the Waste Framework Directive is decided case by case, and the answer matters because the certification route follows it.

Only above serious volumes with a stable crude: distillation lifts the cargo into technical grade, and the capital and energy cost only clear with throughput. Most producers sell crude well and leave the refining margin to plants built for it. We run the numbers with producers before anyone orders columns.

Yes, at an honest discount, into the tolerant end of the buyer list -- biogas and some industrial outlets price imperfection rather than rejecting it. The honest specification gets the fair discount; a discovered one gets a claim.

Three levers: quote the five numbers unprompted so buyers price in one reply, keep the analysis consistent so you sell on specification instead of on story, and certificate the stream where its Annex IX Part A status pays. Each lever is worth real money per tonne.

Yes, and most of the trade does. The CN classification fixes the customs treatment, the origin documentation fixes the sustainability story, and the analysis decides which buyers are realistic before the freight is even quoted. We run dedicated routes for the two largest overseas origins: exporting glycerine from Brazil and exporting glycerine from Asia. Distance narrows the buyer list, so the specification has to carry the argument.