Epoxidation of refined soy-bean oil by molecular oxygen. Influence of the variables. Kinetic study

Abstract

The influences of temperature, concentration of catalyst and initial concentration of unsaturation on epoxide formation and esters from oleic and linoleic acids disappearance in liquid phase epoxidation reaction by molecular oxygen of soy-bean oil using molibdenyl-acetylacetonate as catalyst, has been studied. From experimental data obtained by a complex factorial design, an equation for epoxide formation reaction rate as a function of temperature, catalyst concentration and unsaturation initial concentration were deduced. A kinetic model is proposed too and using a calculation program based on 4^th Order Runge-Kutta numerical procedure to simulate the reactions that took place, the kinetic coefficients and activation energies that best fitted the calculated data to the experimental data were determined.