Synthesis of high oleic palm oil-based trimethylolpropane esters in a vacuum operated pulsed loop reactor

Abstract

The experimental studies have shown that a pulsed loop reactor can be used to successfully reduce the reaction time for the transesterification of oils and fats. In the present study, the transesterification of palm methyl ester (PME) and trimethylolpropane (TMP) to produce palm oil based TMP ester was conducted using the vacuum operated pulsed loop reactor. The reaction was catalyzed with sodium methoxide solution in methanol. The influences of five operating variables such as vacuum pressure, catalyst loading, molar ratio of high oleic PME to TMP, reaction temperature and oscillatory speed on the yield of TMP esters and unwanted fatty soap formation were examined. The optimum conditions for the reaction were found at 120 °C, 20 mbar, 3.9:1 M ratio of PME:TMP, 1.0 wt% catalyst solution and 180 rpm oscillatory speed. The product containing 95 wt% TMP triester was successfully synthesized in 1 h with 167 mg/g of fatty soap. The physicochemical properties of the TMP esters obtained using pulse reactor were comparable to characteristics of high oleic TMP esters.

Synthesis of Trimethylolpropane Esters by Base‐Catalyzed Transesterification

“…The results indicated that all three base catalysts achieved high conversion (95.4 ± 1.80%) in 1.5 h one‐pot reactions. The results of using K 2 CO 3 and KOH are comparable to similar studies that utilized NaOMe as the catalyst . In earlier studies of methoxide catalysts, the overall reaction reached completion (>98%) in 1 h under the optimum conditions .…”

Valorization of waste cooking oil based biodiesel for biolubricant production in a vertical pulsed column: Energy efficient process approach

“…As a result, mass transfer and consequently reaction yield increase. These observations are similar to those made by [31] who also found that the reaction yield increased with increasing oscillation frequency at a reaction temperature of 130 °C. However, they also showed that excessive values of oscillation frequency caused a reduction in the reaction yield.…”

“…Hamidah et al [31], the effect of FAME to TMP molar ratio (ranging from 3.5:1 to 4.3:1) on palm oil based TFATE was investigated. Their results showed that the FAME to TMP molar ratio had influence on TFATE reaction yield over the chosen range.…”

“…2 hours [30]). Hamid et al [31] investigated the influence of five operating parameters on palm biolubricant production in a pulsed loop reactor. They found that the operating parameters which had the most significant effect on TFATE yield were reaction temperature, vacuum pressure, palm methyl ester to TMP molar ratio, sodium methoxide catalyst loading and the oscillatory speed.…”

Statistical optimization of the synthesis of plant-derived fatty acid esters of TMP over homogeneous organometallic tin catalyst

“…The yield of the product does not usually exceed 95% and the crude ester require careful purifi cation. Fatty acid esters of TMP can be also obtained by transesterifi cation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) using conventional homogeneous basic catalyst [17][18][19][20][21] .…”