Canola oil with an iodine value of 112/100 g, and containing 60% oleic acid and 20% linoleic acid, was epoxidised using a peroxyacid generated in situ from hydrogen peroxide and a carboxylic acid (acetic or formic acid) in the presence of an acidic ion exchange resin (AIER), Amberlite IR 120H. Acetic acid was found to be a better oxygen carrier than formic acid, as it produced about 10% more conversion of ethylenic unsaturation to oxirane than that produced by formic acid under otherwise identical conditions. A detailed process developmental study was then performed with the acetic acid/AIER combination. The parameters optimised were temperature (65°C), acetic acid to ethylenic unsaturation molar ratio (0.5), hydrogen peroxide to ethylenic unsaturation molar ratio (1.5), and AIER loading (22%). An iodine conversion of 88.4% and a relative conversion to oxirane of 90% were obtained at the optimum reaction conditions. The heterogeneous catalyst, AIER, was found to be reusable and exhibited a negligible loss in activity.

Nickel contaminated wastewater from plating industries is a major environmental concern. Current treatment methods are often expensive and can also create additional problems. Biosorption is an alternative treatment method that uses inexpensive biomaterials to sequester metals from aqueous solutions. In this study, acid washed barley straw (AWBS) was used for adsorbing nickel ions (Ni 2+ ) from simulated nickel plating wastewater. The adsorption process was rapid and the equilibrium was reached in about anhour. An increase in the initial nickel concentration increased the equilibrium nickel uptake, and the maximum uptake was found to be 8.45 mg/g of AWBS when the initial nickel concentration was1000 mg/L at pH 5. Nickel adsorption was favorable at room temperature than 5 o C and 40 o C, better adsorption rate and equilibrium uptake was observed at 23 o C. Increasing the pH from 3 to 7 increased the equilibrium nickel uptake and the maximum uptake was observed at pH 7, whilst the initial nickel ion concentration was 100 mg/L. The Freundlich isotherm model exhibited better fit with the equilibrium data than the Langmuir equation. Nickel was desorbed using hydrochloric acid solution at pH 2 and the desorption efficiency was 86%. LIST OF TABLES

Epoxidation of canola oil was carried out using a peroxyacid generated in situ from hydrogen peroxide and a carboxylic acid (acetic or formic acid) in the presence of liquid inorganic acid, H 2 SO 4 , as catalyst. Acetic acid was found to be a better oxygen carrier than formic acid as it gave about 11% more conversion of ethylenic unsaturation to oxirane than that given by formic acid under otherwise identical conditions. A high temperature of above 65• C is significantly unfavourable for achieving high oxirane numbers, as the selectivity to oxirane ring opening reaction increases. Higher concentrations (above 0.5 mol/mol of ethylenic unsaturation) of acetic acid, formic acid or hydrogen peroxide are also detrimental (mainly, the carboxylic acids) but much less than that of the temperature effect. From a detailed process developmental study, the parameters optimised were a temperature of 65• C, acetic acid-to-ethylenic unsaturation molar ratio of 0.5, hydrogen peroxide-to-ethylenic unsaturation molar ratio of 1.5 and sulphuric acid loading of 2%. A relative conversion to oxirane of 81% and an iodine value conversion of 86.5% were obtained under the optimum reaction conditions. The formation of the epoxide as well as ring-opened product of canola was confirmed by FTIR and 1 H NMR spectral analysis. From a kinetic analysis, the activation energy of this commercially important reaction was determined to be 10.7 kcal/mol. The findings of this study show that hydroxylated canola oil can be used as a starting material for the lubricant formulations. 

Green seed canola oil is underutilized for edible purposes due to its high chlorophyll content, which makes it more susceptible to photo-oxidation and ultimately reduces the oxidation stability. The present work is an attempt to compare the kinetics of epoxidation of crude green seed canola oil (CGSCO) and treated green seed canola oil (TGSCO) with peroxyacids generated in situ in presence of an Amberlite IR-120 acidic ion exchange resin (AIER) as catalyst. Among the two oxygen carrier studied, acetic acid was found to be a better carrier than the formic acid, as it gives 8% more conversion of double bond than the formic acid. A detailed process developmental study was then performed with the acetic acid/AIER combination. For the oils under investigation parameters optimized were temperature (558C), hydrogen peroxide to double bond molar ratio (2.0), acetic acid to double bond molar ratio (0.5), and AIER loading (15%). An iodine conversion of 90.33, 90.20%, and a relative epoxide yield of 90, 88.8% were obtained at the optimum reaction conditions for CGSCO and TGSCO, respectively. The formation of the epoxide product of CGSCO and TGSCO was confirmed by Fourier Transform IR Spectroscopy (FTIR) and NMR (1H NMR) spectral analysis.