Glycerol is generated in large quantity as an inevitable byproduct of the biofuels industry. Availability, low prices, and high degree of reduction make this compound an ideal feedstock to produce reduced compounds via anaerobic fermentation. Though glycerol has been shown to be utilized by many enteric bacteria under fermentative condition, it has very recently been shown in our lab that the E. coli can also utilize glycerol by fermentative metabolism. In this work we make use of the knowledge base created by our previous studies to engineer E. coli for the efficient conversion of crude glycerol into ethanol along with the co-products H₂ and formate. To improve the rate of glycerol utilization, we overexpressed the enzymes glycerol dehydrogenase (gldA) and dihydroxyacetone kinase (dhaKLM), which are responsible for the conversion of glycerol to glycolytic intermediate dihydroxyacetone phosphate. We further created two independent strains for the co-production of ethanol and formate and ethanol and hydrogen. Strain SY04 (pZSKLMgldA), containing mutations that minimize the synthesis of succinate and acetate and the consumption of formate, produce ethanol and formate at yields exceeding 90% of the theoretical maximum and specific rates higher than 15 mmole/gcell/h. Strain SY03 (pZSKLMgldA), containing mutations that minimize the synthesis of succinate and acetate and cultivated under acidic and microaerobic conditions, produced ethanol and hydrogen at yields also surpassing 90% of the theoretical maximum and specific rates of about 10 mmole/gcell/h. The engineered strains efficiently converted unrefined glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production, to ethanol and coproducts hydrogen and formate.