Surface coating industry uses drying and semi-drying oils containing
varying amounts of oleic, linoleic, and linolenic fatty acids or dehydrated
ricinoleic acid (castor oil) fractions (with iodine values in the
range of 125–160 g/100 g) for manufacturing alkyd resins. These
are used in large volumes in air drying paints and varnishes. Different
methods are reported in the literature for increasing the unsaturation
in the available fatty oils/acids. Most of these methods use feedstocks
that already contain unsaturation. In this research, we studied functionalization
of renewable saturated oils (iodine value ≤ 5 g/100 g) as potential
replacements for costly unsaturated vegetable oils such as soybean
oil, linseed oil, castor oil, and so forth. This process includes
radical bromination of saturated fatty acids/oils followed by dehydrobromination
using an alcoholic base to obtain the desired unsaturation. Computational
studies were performed to find out stability of bromo compounds. Dehydrobromination
was found to be quantitative when fully saturated feedstocks were
employed. On the other hand, feedstocks bearing unsaturation could
not be fully dehydrobrominated, demonstrating thereby that the approach
adopted herein is ideally suited to completely saturated oil as a
replacement. The maximum achieved iodine value was 125–130
g/100 g for 1:3 ratio of [substrate]/[Br]. Performance tests were
carried out on the product, and the results were found to be along
expected lines with commercial products. Further increase of the iodine
value to 132 g/100 g was achieved by separating out the unreacted
saturates by crystallization. In this way, product efficacy could
be enhanced while recycling the saturated fraction in a subsequent
batch. Separation of saturated components from unsaturated components
would also be beneficial for successful use of inexpensive feedstocks
such as tallow. It is further shown that the brominating reagent and
catalyst can be recycled and reused, making the whole process industrially
attractive.