Synthesis and Characterization of Polyols from Refined Cooking Oil for Polyurethane Foam Formation

Abstract

In this study, synthesized polyols from refined cooking oil, one of the ingredients in producing polyurethane (PU) foam, were investigated. The effects of reaction time, pH and type of solvents used on the properties of the polyols were characterized by using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Further studies were carried out by using the synthesized polyols in combination with other chemicals for PU foam formation. The characterizations of the PU foams were performed through chemical, morphological and thermal analyses. The results showed that the polyols were synthesized successfully from refined cooking oil by using epoxidation and the hydroxylation process. 50% of the unsaturated fatty acids in the refined cooking oil were converted to saturated fatty acids and hydroxyl compounds as the reaction time increased up to five hours. However, the chemical contents in the polyols did not show significant changes as the pH value increased from pH3 to pH7. Using different types of solvent in the process showed that the hydroxyl content of the polyols ranged between 57 to 69 mg KOH/ g, with MtruēW in the range of 15325 to 19320 g mol-1. The results also revealed that not all the synthesized polyols were suitable for PU foam formation. It is recommended in this study that the minimum hydroxyl content and molecular weight of the synthesized polyol required for PU foam formation is 69 mg KOH/ g and 19320 g mol-1 respectively. The properties of PU foam are highly dependent on the polyol and the water (blowing agent) content.

Microbial valorization of waste cooking oils for valuable compounds production – a review

“…Although the main biorefinery concept around WCO are focused on biodiesel, other valorization options have been exploited, including its use as raw material for the production of soaps, resins, polymers, grease lubricants and polyurethane (Abdulbari & Zuhan, 2018;F elix, Ara ujo, Pires & Sousa, 2017;Fernandes, Kirwan, Lehane, & Coles, 2017;Feng et al, 2018;Maotsela, Danha & Muzenda, 2019;Salleh, Tahir, & Mohamed, 2018;Sipaut et al, 2012;Suzuki, Botelho, Oliveira, & Franca, 2018;Zheng et al, 2018). WCO can also be used as a source for energy production, such as biohydrogen, pyrolytic oil, electricity (by direct combustion), hydrocarbons (by gasification and liquefaction) or blend to solid fuels Nanda et al, 2019;Panadare & Rathod, 2015;Rinc on et al, 2019;Rodrigues et al, 2018;Teixeira et al, 2018;Xiong et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2019).…”

The Effect of Carboxymethyl Cellulose as Bio Filler on Ionic Conductivity and Physical Property of Waste Cooking Oil Based Polyurethane Composite Polymer Electrolyte

“…It is now gradually being replaced with vegetable oil based materials. However, due to high cost and competition with food supply, latest approach is to synthesize polyurethane using used or waste cooking oil (WCO) [6]. WCO is an under-utilized highly abundant raw material, easily obtained from food industry that usually being recycled to produce biodiesel.…”

Synthesis of Waste Cooking Oil-Based Polyol Using Sugarcane Bagasse Activated Carbon and Transesterification Reaction for Rigid Polyurethane Foam

“…Several reactions had been used in previous studies in order to produce WCO-based polyol such as epoxidation [6], hydroxylation [5,7,8] and ozonolysis [9]. However, most of these existing methods produced low number of hydroxyl and require long reaction time.…”