Vegetable Glycerin Or Just Glycerin

[Derick]

So I've been wondering about the difference - whenever I google I just run into Wikipedia pages about Glycerol (which is the pharmaceutical name for Glycerin)

Finally my google-fu paid off and here is what I found
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vegetable-glycerin.htm#didyouknowout

Glycerin, also known as glycerol, is an organic compound of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen with the chemical formula C3H8O3. It is produced industrially, usually as a by-product of soap manufacture, from oils and fats. It can be made from animal fat or, in the case of vegetable glycerin, vegetable oil. The source of the raw material does not affect the chemistry of the final product, but, since glycerin is widely used in foods and medications, this distinction is important for vegetarians. It is also used as a sweetener and as an ingredient in a number of cosmetic products."

So if you're a meat eater like me - either will do - if you are vegetarian or vegan - then you want to go for the vegetable glycerin and murder some plants rather than animals for your e-cig habit

 

[Andre]

Thanks Derick. Interesting. I have never in the ecig world come across anyone that refers to just Glycerin, they always talk of VG. Wonder if there is a reason for this? As I understand PG is just the synthesized version of Glycerin.

 

[drew]

Thanks Derick. Interesting. I have never in the ecig world come across anyone that refers to just Glycerin, they always talk of VG. Wonder if there is a reason for this? As I understand PG is just the synthesized version of Glycerin.

Raw gycerol is processed in the production of glycerine, this can be of vegetable, synthetic or animal origin. That's why it's referred to as Vegetable Glycerine... the origin of raw glycerol

 

[Derick]

Thanks Derick. Interesting. I have never in the ecig world come across anyone that refers to just Glycerin, they always talk of VG. Wonder if there is a reason for this? As I understand PG is just the synthesized version of Glycerin.

People refer to it as VG = Vegetable Glycerin and non-vegetable glycerin is now sommer also referred to as VG, it has become a standard name. In the end you only need to worry about it if you are against using animal parts for your e-cigs. I suspect that plenty of companies out there use the one made from animal fats, or ones that are a byproduct of some other process (like biodiesel manufacture) and just call it VG anyway - seeing as the chemical composition is the same, there is no way for you to tell where it came from

PG, or Propylene Glycol has a different chemical composition to VG, so no it is not really related to VG other than they are made up of the same elements

VG = C3H8O3
PG = C3H8O2

So VG has an extra Oxygen molecule - close, but not the same.

Glycerol is now also a byproduct of creating Biodiesel and with more and more countries putting down regulations to increase the manufacture of biodiesel, they reckon that by 2020 Glycerol production will be 6 times more than demand. What this means for us is that the price of Glycerol/Glycerin will drop as time goes by - but the price of Vegetable Glycerin will probably go up, as it will be more costly to manufacture compared just getting the Glycerin from the biodiesel manufacturing process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerol