Esterification rates of some saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with glycerol

Abstract

Esterification rates of eight commonly occurring fatty acids were studied at 180C using equivalent and equimolar amounts of glycerol with and without a cosolvent. The esterification with equivalent amounts of glycerol without cosolvent followed second order kinetics and proceeded at a similar rate for all acids examined. Esterifications with equimolar amounts of glycerol were kinetically complex and their speed depended on the solubility of glycerol in individual fatty acids.

Esterification kinetics of glycerol with fatty acids in the presence of sodium and potassium soaps

“…It was found [20][21][22][23][24], that the reaction kinetics is of second order. This was proved by Hartmann [13] for uncatalyzed esterification reaction, but only for equivalent weight concentration of the substrates. When glycerol and fatty acids were used in equimolar ratios, the reaction became complicated.…”

“…The influence of reaction parameters like temperature [10][11][12][13], molar concentration [13,14], and catalysts [10,11] was mainly investigated for the optimization of monoacylglycerol yield and the rate of the esterification process. Many alkaline catalysts e.g.…”

Esterification of oleic acid with glycerol in the presence of sulfated iron oxide catalyst

“…A considerable amount of work has been done on the esterification of fatty acids with glycerol (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). In most of these studies, either with (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21) or without catalyst (6,8,18,22,23), the conditions necessary to obtain specified partial glycerides in high yield and to reach lower acid values in a reasonable time period were determined. The reaction was also investigated by several researchers with respect to its kinetics.…”

“…Additionally, Dunlop and Heckles (21) included glycerol in their study on the catalyzed esterification of oleic acid with various glycols (21). Hartman (22) studied the esterification kinetics of some saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with glycerol at 180~ with and without a cosolvent. In fact, the use of *To whom correspondence should be addressed.…”

“…In fact, the use of *To whom correspondence should be addressed. a cosolvent was suggested by several workers to force the formation of partial glycerides in high yield (9,22,27,28). In this connection, a simple laboratory method for the esterification of fatty acids with glycerol in the presence of pyridine was developed previously in this laboratory (29).…”