Phase Stability of a Triglyceride/Alcohol/Catalytic-Surfactant System in Transesterification Academic Article

abstract

• AbstractTernary phase diagrams were developed to discern the phase stability of triglyceride (soybean oil)/alcohol/catalyticsurfactant (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.

authors

• Fernando, Sandun
• Rooney, William

published proceedings

• ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

author list (cited authors)

• Nawaratna, G. I., Rooney, W., Leonhardt, C., & Fernando, S. D.

complete list of authors

• Nawaratna, Gayan I||Rooney, William L Jr||Leonhardt, Christina||Fernando, Sandun D

publisher

• Wiley  Publisher

published in

• Energy Technology  Journal

keywords

• Catalysis
• Emulsions
• Micelles
• Phase Stability
• Transesterifications

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1002/ente.201300029

start page

• 359

end page

• 363

volume

• 1

issue

• 5-6