Palm-based alpha-sulfonated methyl esters (SME) were successfully produced using a 20 kg/h-capacity pilot plant at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. This anionic surfactant was used as an active ingredient to formulate powder detergent. The production of palm-based powder detergents (PPD) was carried out at the pilot-plant scale. The performance of powder detergents formulated with SME was found to be excellent. At a total concentration of 0.8 g/L, good detergency of PPD was obtained when only using 12% to 18% SME, compared to the commercial detergent with 27% surface-active agent. The foaming power and wetting characteristics of PPD were also comparable to the values for the commercial detergent. The study has shown that PPD were able to biodegrade faster than the commercial detergent, where the maximum time period to reach the pass level (60%) is within 14 days. The toxicity of the PPD, which ranged from 5.66 to 8.0 mg/L, is similar to the toxicity of the commercial detergent. A detailed description of the SME application technologies in powder detergents and the properties of formulated powder detergents are highlighted in this paper.

The palm oil industry is one of the major agro-based industries in Malaysia whose production accounts for more than 90% of the world export. The industry, however, also generates enormous quantities of liquid waste with high organic load causing serious pollution problems. In view of the high level of organics, anaerobic pretreatment is usually practised prior to aerobic breakdown. Most of the anaerobic digesters installed at the mills are currently operated under mesophilic conditions. However, the inherently high temperature of the effluent suggests that thermophilic digestion would bring about a much more effective system. This paper reports on results obtained from a pilot plant study on thermophilic anaerobic contact digestion of palm oil mill effluent which has been conducted and includes a microbiological study associated with the investigation.

Dihydroxystearic acid (DHSA) ester was synthesized enzymatically to overcome the problems associated with chemical processes. Immobilized enzyme, Lipozyme IM and Novozym 435, were employed as catalysts in the esterification reaction between DHSA and monohydric alcohol. Various factors that may affect the esterification reaction were studied, such as initial water content (a w ), organic solvent, substrate concentration and the influence of alcohol chain length. It was found that the percent conversion was higher in organic solvents with log P (the logarithm of the partition coefficient of solvent in octanol/water system) from 2.0 to 4.0. The reaction was not affected by a w from 0.09 to 0.96. Increasing the mole ratio of alcohol to acid above 2.0 did not increase the percent conversion of ester. The ester was identified by Fourier transform infrared and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Hydroxy fatty acid esters are of considerable industrial interest compared with ordinary esters because of their different behaviors including solubility, surface-active properties, and thermal stability (1). These compounds have interesting applications, such as plasticizers, mold release agent, waxes, surfactant and chemical intermediates (2). Sulfonated wax esters of ricinoleic acid are promising surface-active compounds (3). Current manufacture of these esters is realized by reacting a fatty acid/hydroxy fatty acid and an alcohol at high temperature in the presence of a tin, titanium, or sulfuric acid catalyst for up 20 h. This high-temperature process can lead to degradation of the ester and undesired side reactions; additionally, the resulting energy costs are high (4).Lipase-catalyzed reactions operate at mild conditions, which prevent degradation of starting materials and reduce side reactions. Application of lipases in various biochemical modifications of fats and oils is well established, and the catalytic activity of lipases toward hydroxy acids is also well studied by various workers (4-7). For example, Rhizomucor miehei lipase has been employed in the esterification of 12-hydroxystearic acid and alcohol (4). Mukesh et al. (5) have produced ricinoleic acid wax esters by R. miehei lipase-catalyzed esterification of ricinoleic acid or alcoholysis of castor oil. Wagner et al. (6) and Hayes (7) also employed R. miehei to prepare wax ester by esterification or alcoholysis reactions.The aims of the present study are to investigate the enzymatic esterification reaction of the carboxyl group of dihydroxystearic acid (DHSA) with monohydric alcohol (Scheme 1) and to examine the effect of various reaction parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODSMaterials. DHSA was prepared in the laboratory (8). 1-Octanol (purity, 99%) and 1-octadecanol (purity, 99%) were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). 1-Decanol (purity, 98%), 1-dodecanol (purity, 98%), 1-tetradecanol (purity, 98%), and 1-hexadecanol (purity, >95%) were from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Lipozyme IM (lipase from R. miehei) and Novozym 435 (lipase from Candid...

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