Today, glycerol is mainly a by-product of fat splitting and biodiesel production. This study examined the use of chemically modified silica gels for downstream separation of propane-1,3-diol and butan-1-ol from fermentation broths obtained through the glycerol fermentation process. The developed method was found to be simple and efficient for the isolation and purification of butan-1-ol from the other components in the fermentation mixture. However, in the case of the separation of propane-1,3-diol from fermentation broth, the silica gel sorbents were ineffective. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.