Epoxidation of various palm fruit-based oils and the optimization parameter using Taguchi method

Palm fruit-based oils are attractive due to their availability in our country, Malaysia and their role as commodity products that can increase Malaysia economic growth. In in-situ epoxidation the unsaturated carbon double bond is modified by adding another atom to produce oxirane ring. Various chemicals have been synthesis using epoxide as the precursor such as alcohols, glycols, olefinic compounds, lubricants, plasticizer and stabilizer for polymers due to high reactivity of oxirane ring. Hence, epoxidized oils are seen as added-value precursors as they are obtained from sustainable and renewable natural resources. The purpose of this study is to establish epoxidation as one of the methods to produce diverse products from crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, and refined palm olein. The epoxidized oil was prepared based on peroxy acid epoxidation method. The peroxy acid is generated in-situ, using either formic acid, acetic acid or propionic acid. Taguchi Optimization indicates that formic acid, sulfuric acid, crude palm oil and the 75℃ are the best oxygen carrier, catalyst and temperature for the reaction, respectively. The conversion optimized by controlling the parameter that affected conversion of epoxidation processes such as temperature reaction, types of catalyst used, types of oxygen carrier used and different types of material by using Taguchi Optimization method. Sample characterization was done using Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) analysis in order to detect the carbon-carbon double bond (C=C) existance in the samples before and after epoxidation.