Chemical Modification of Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil to Improve its Functional Properties for Candles

Abstract

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (PHVO) has recently been used to make vegetable oil-based candles. However, its use is limited primarily to container candles because of its inherent physical properties, such as brittleness when a hard material is produced, and greasiness when it is soft by low degree of hydrogenation. Such material lacks the most desired cohesiveness and elasticity compared to the commercial petroleum paraffin and beeswax. To improve the cohesiveness and thermal properties of PHVO, epoxidation, ring-opening reaction, and esterification were conducted to introduce new functional groups into the fatty acyl chain of PHVO. These newly synthesized derivatives or waxes were also mixed with the fully hydrogenated soybean oil (FHSO) or PHVO base materials. Hardness and cohesiveness of the new waxes and the mixtures were measured with a texture analyzer. Their thermal properties were analyzed with a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was found that the introduction of hydroxyl (OH) group significantly improved the cohesiveness of PHVO. The melting range of PHVO also increased after the reactions. However, the hardness of the new wax was lower than those of commercial paraffin wax or beeswax. For wax mixtures, the hardness of dihydroxy wax was significantly improved by the addition of FHSO, however, the cohesiveness was negatively affected by the amount of FHSO added. Both the melting and the crystallization ranges were widened by mixing the derivatives with the base materials.

Green waxes, adhesives and lubricants

“…Vegetable oil is widely studied as a desirable and important candidate raw material for wax production (Rezaei et al 2002;Wang & Wang 2007). Vegetable oil-based waxes are mainly obtained by partially or fully hydrogenating vegetable R e t r a c t e d oil (PHVO or FHVO).…”

Green Synthesis of Polymer Composites/Nanocomposites Using Vegetable Oil

“…Instead of using petroleum-based paraffin waxes nowadays peoples are like to use the renewable resources, for example, vegetable oils are also used in candle industry to avoid a by-product of the fractionation and refining of the fossil fuel crude oil. Although candles made from paraffin are low priced for consumers, the rising petroleum prices and due to some environmental concerns have increased people's interest in using products that are from renewable sources (Wang and Wang 2007). Renewable resources can distribute an interesting sustainable platform to substitute partially, and to some extent totally, petroleum-based polymers through the design of bio related polymers Fig.…”

Simple Synthesis Hydrogenated Castor Oil Fatty Amide Wax and Its Coating Characterization

“…Wax sources can be generally categorized as petroleum-based, synthetic, and natural waxes, with petroleum-based waxes dominating the market 85 2 . Wax plays an important role in the global industrial process, such as lighting, packaging, farming, chemical rubber, and medicine and homecare products 3 . However, petroleum waxes have gradually lost market share in a few applications because of environmental concerns, such as depleting oil reserves and highly variable price of crude petroleum.…”

“…Wax derived from vegetable oil has been the focus of interest of innovators because of its relatively abundant supply and low price 3,11 .…”