No abstract

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 development of specialty esters using palm-based materials through a solventless and autocatalytic method was investigated. The C 8− C 10 fatty-acid esters of pentaerythritol are the bases for high-performance lubricants. In the present study, an easy and efficient method was developed using an esterification process coupled with short-path distillation to produce high-purity pentaerythritol ester (PEE) for the more complete removal of acid value (AV) in the end products. The compositions of the distilled PEE have the highest 96% w/w % tetraester at an evaporator temperature of 200-225 C and a vacuum pressure of 0.05 mbar to retain a low AV of less than 1 mg KOH g −1 and a low hydroxyl value. The rate of heating at 30 C h −1 was found to be crucial in obtaining high-purity tetraester. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 301F, PEE is readily biodegradable and 100% biodegradability can be achieved in less than 9 days. PEE produced has shown lubricant properties and can be used as a base stock for biolubricant composition.Keywords Environment Á Biolubricant Á Pentaerythritol ester Á Tetraester J Am Oil Chem Soc (2018) 95: 1421-1429.

Methyl ester sulfonate (MES) is an anionic surfactant derived from palm oil through sulfonation of fatty acid methyl esters. Due to limited ecotoxicological data on MES, this study was initiated to evaluate the ecotoxicological properties of MES and its impact to the environment. The respirometric method (OECD 301F) was used to monitor the biodegradation of various homologues of MES over 28 days. The algae growth inhibition test (OECD 201) was conducted to assess the effects of palm‐based MES towards green algae by exposing exponentially‐growing cultures of Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (P. subcapitata) to five concentrations of MES with maximum concentrations of 100 mg/L. Results showed all MES samples were readily biodegradable, where the biodegradability of each homologue surpassed 60% within 28 days. It was also observed that the longer the carbon chain length of MES, the solubility and the biodegradability rate decreased. The ecotoxicity of C12 and C14 MES towards P. subcapitata after 72 h of experiment showed no inhibition of algae growth in C12 MES while, the growth of algae decreased as the concentration of C14 MES increases. The EC50 value for C14 MES and C16 MES towards green algae was >100 and >10 mg/L, respectively. It can be concluded that C12 and C14 MES were practically non‐toxic towards P. subcapitata and the toxicity increased with an increase in chain length of the surfactant (EC50 value decreases). Therefore homologues of palm‐based MES are not expected to cause environmental concern due to their biodegradability and low toxicity in the aquatic environment.

Methyl ester sulphonates (MES) have been considered as an alternative green surfactant for the detergent market. Investigation on the purification of methyl ester sulphonates (MES) with various carbon chains of C12, C14, C16 and C16–18 derived from palm methyl ester is of great interest. These MES powders have been repeatedly crystallized with ethanol and the purity of MES has increased to a maximum of 99% active content and 96% crystallinity index without changing the structure. These crystallized MES with high active content have 1.0% to 2.3% moisture content and retained its di-salt content in the range of 5%. The crystallized MES C16 and C16–18 attained excellent flow characteristics. Morphology, structural and its crystallinity analyses showed that the crystals MES had good solubility properties, stable crystal structure (β polymorphic) and triclinic lateral structure when it is in high active content. The brittleness of MES crystals increased from a β’ to a β subcell. Crystal with high brittleness has the potential to ease production of powder, which leads to a reduction in the cost of production and improves efficiency.