Epoxidation Reaction Parameter of Palm Olein for Synthesis of Dihydrostearic Acid (DHSA) Via Hydrolysis Reaction

Abstract

Nowadays, most of the industries in the world such as plastic industries manufacture products based on petrochemicals resources. Epoxidation is a method where fatty acids are converted to a three membered epoxide ring that is called oxirane ring when the double bond of carbons reacts with active oxygen. Thereafter epixidized vegetable oil was hydrolyzed to form DHSA. Based on the experimental findings, the optimum conditions for epoxidations palm olein temperature at 55oC with the presence of sulphuric acid as catalyst with producing the highest yield of 80.33%. FTIR results shows that the disappearance of double bond carbon C=C group peak at 3,000 cm-1 and formation of oxirane ring in the spectrum of fingerprint region is indicated by the peaks between 815 to 890cm-1. For DHSA synthesis, the conversion of oxirane is decreasing to 16.10% after 5 hours of heating at 60oC. The FTIR analysis shows the the epoxy group at 837 cm-1 had disappeared and the hydroxyl group which confirmed the formation of DHSA was observed at the region of 3200-3600 cm-1.