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Phase Stability of a Triglyceride/Alcohol/Catalytic‐Surfactant System in Transesterification
Author(s) -
Nawaratna Gayan I.,
Rooney William L.,
Leonhardt Christina,
Fernando Sandun D.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201300029
Subject(s) - alkoxide , transesterification , alcohol , chemistry , catalysis , titanium , pulmonary surfactant , organic chemistry , polymerization , phase (matter) , materials science , chemical engineering , biochemistry , engineering , polymer
Ternary phase diagrams were developed to discern the phase stability of triglyceride (soybean oil)/alcohol/catalytic‐surfactant (metal alkoxide with an analogous alkyl group to alcohol) system. The objective was to elucidate the effect of the catalytic surfactant on making the alcohol/oil immiscible phases miscible in each other and in turn how this phase stabilization translates into transesterification catalysis. The effects of 1) degree of titanium alkoxide polymerization and 2) hydrocarbon tail length and chirality on the phase stability of the alcohol/oil system were studied. It was observed that higher levels of titanium alkoxide polymerization reduced the ability of these alkoxides to emulsify oil/alcohol emulsions while longer chain lengths increased their emulsification ability. An interesting observation was that at high enough concentrations of titanium alkoxide that brought the system to a stable single phase, the transesterification reaction occurred autonomously at room temperature.