Epoxidation of waste cooking oil using catalytic in situ generated performic acid

Abstract

Nowadays, utilizing renewable resources is one of the top research interests among researchers around the world in order to maintain the synthesis of products based on chemicals. Oleic acid (C18:1) derived from palm oil contains the unsaturated double bond (C=C) in its long alkyl chain makes it an attractive fatty acid for the production of eco-friendly epoxide. The epoxidation of waste cooking oil was carried out by using in situ generated performic acid (HCOOOH) to produce epoxidized oleic acid. Epoxy ring-opening also known as epoxide cleavage or epoxide ring degradation occurs in the epoxidation of vegetable oils. It is imperative to minimize process losses via ring-opening in order to achieve good yields and high peroxide values of the epoxidized vegetable oil. In this study, we analysed the effect of agitation speed, the effect of molar ratio of the formic acid to waste cooking oil and the effect of hydrogen peroxide to waste cooking oil molar ratio to epoxidation waste cooking oil.