Production and characterization of epoxidized canola oil

Epoxidized canola oil may be well suited to the partial replacement of petroleum products in composite matrices; however, a process is needed to obtain this material from canola oil at sufficient conversion and scale to assess product properties. Therefore, canola oil was epoxidized in a solvent-free process with a heterogeneous catalyst; a fractional factorial design was used to determine the impact of processing conditions and their two-factor interactions on epoxy group content of epoxidized canola oil. The studied parameters were: molar ratio of acetic acid to unsaturation, molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide to unsaturation, concentration of hydrogen peroxide, concentration of catalyst, and temperature. Epoxidized canola oil with up to 98.5% conversion was produced. The parameters molar ratio of acetic acid to unsaturation, concentration of hydrogen peroxide, temperature, and their interactions were found to be significant in the defined design space. Process conditions that achieved the highest conversion were scaled to 300 g to compare the conversion, production yield, and rheological and melting properties of products of the epoxidation of both canola and soybean oil with and without solvent. Epoxidized canola oil crystallized at room temperature; at 40DGC it was shear-thinning with an apparent viscosity of 140 to 150 mPaDTs. Elimination of solvent in the epoxidation process decreased the yield 10% but did not reduce the conversion to epoxy groups. Therefore, the scaled-up, solvent-free process is proposed as a green alternative for sufficient epoxidized canola oil to test composite applications.