Synthesis of dihydroxystearic acid for palm oil-derived oleic acid via sustainable epoxidation and subsequent ring-opening using amberlite IR-120H ion exchange resin catalyst / Siti Mariam A. Rahman

Vegetable oils have high content of unsaturated bond that can be converted into epoxidized oleic acid thus they are considered sustainable, renewable, and also an environmentally friendly. Many commercial epoxides in the market are mainly based on petroleum and animals which are not environmentally friendly. At present, there are limited studies on the production of epoxidized oleic acid using eco-friendly ion exchange resin method. Consequently, the objective of this study is to optimise the reaction conditions of epoxidation oleic acid using ion exchange resin (amberlite IR- 120H) as a catalyst and subsequent ring-opening by hydrolysis for production dihydroxystearic acid (DHSA). Epoxidized oleic acid was produced by using in situ formed performic acid. Performic acid was formed by mixing formic acid as the oxygen carrier with hydrogen peroxide as the oxygen donor with applied amberlite IR-120H as catalyst. The oxirane rings are highly reactive to opening, especially through hydrolysis process to produced DHSA.