Epoxidation of candlenut oil

Candle nut (Aleurites moluccana) is very popular in Indonesia, mostly it is used in cooking. The candlenut oil contains 15% oleic acid, 40% linoleic acid, and less than 30 % linolenic acid, it contains high unsaturated fatty acids, which is a prospective raw material for epoxidation. To obtain value-added products from locally available renewable natural resources, epoxidation of candle nut oil was investigated. Epoxidized of vegetable oils and esters derived from them have found important applications as plasticizers and additives for textile, cosmetics and polymers. Epoxidation of some oils such as corn, olive, cottonseed, mahua oil and rubberseed oil have been studied, even the epoxidation of soybean oil has been carried out in industrial scale. However report on epoxidation of candlenut oil has not been found yet. Candlenut oil was obtained from pressing the broken candlenuts, which usually being reject product. The epoxidation reactions were carried out in a baffled reactor. The reactor was equipped with stirrer and charged into a thermostatic water bath, with a temperature control. A suitable amount of candle nut oil was taken in the reactor. Calculated amount of acetic acid (CH
₃
COOH) and acid catalyst (H
₂
SO
₄
) were added to the reactor and the mixture was stirred for about half an hour. Then the required amount of 50% aqueous H
₂
O
₂
was added drop-wise at a rate such that the addition was completed in half an hour and the reaction was continued further for the desired time duration. Samples were withdrawn every one hour, considering the completion of H
₂
O
₂
addition as zero time. The collected samples were washed with cold and warm water successively in a separating funnel to remove free acid, and then analyzed for iodine number and oxirane value. Epoxidation were carried out at various temperatures. Higher temperature reduced the reaction time needed to reach the maximum conversion to oxirane value, but also increase the hidrolysis rate of oxyrane. Based on the relative percentage conversion data obtained, it is possible to develop value-added products from candlenut oil.