Epoxidation of Terminalia catappa L. Seed oil: Optimization reaction

•As the awareness about the environment, switching from fossil-based raw materials to bio-renewable based materials.•The double bonds in the structure of fatty acids in vegetable oils can undergo various chemical transformations.•Unsaturated fatty acids contained in Terminalia catappa L. seed oil can be used as a raw material to produce epoxy through epoxidation reactions.•Epoxy from ketapang oil can be used as a substitute for epoxy from petroleum. Unsaturated fatty acids contained in vegetable oils can be used as a raw material to produce epoxy through epoxidation reactions. This study aims to obtain the optimum conditions for the epoxidation reaction of Terminalia catappa L. (local name “ketapang”) seed oil. In this study, the epoxidation reaction was carried out by reacting the ketapang seed oil and a mixture of formic acid and hydrogen peroxide, and sulfuric acid as a catalyst. The optimum reaction conditions obtained were reaction temperature of 45 °C, reaction time of 5 h, and reactants molar ratio of 1:4:5 (mol/mol). The percentage of the oxirane oxygen content of the products synthesized using the optimum reaction conditions was 3.46% with the percentage relative conversion to oxirane of 78%.