Sustainable Synthesis of Polyols Derived via In Situ Epoxidation Peracid Mechanism

The potential utility of epoxidized vegetable oil in industrial applications has begun to be realised, increasing the concern of research to generate value-added products from existing vegetables oil. Heterogeneous catalyst was applied instead of homogeneous catalyst due to corrosiveness and non-environmentally friendly. The epoxidation of oleic acid utilising peracid produced in situ by reacting a carboxylic acid with hydrogen peroxide was chosen for safety reasons. The aim of this study is optimising the reaction conditions of catalytic epoxidation of palm oleic acid with applied heterogeneous catalyst concerning the relative content of oxirane. Employing the in situ peracid process, the maximum conversion of oleic acid generated from palm oil to oxirane was 94%. The hydroxyl group was detected within the wavenumber range of 1210–1301 cm −1 based on the Fourier transform infrared spectrum. Finally, a mathematical model was developed using the Runge–Kutta method, and after 100 iterations, the response rate parameters were determined as follows: k 11 = 0.103, k 12 = 32.120, k 2 = 1.475, and k 3 = 0.008.