Microwave-assisted epoxidized oil production from the wet microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana to obtain environmentally friendly epoxy resins
Microwave-assisted epoxidized oil production from the wet microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana to obtain environmentally friendly epoxy resins
Authors
Hidalgo, Pamela
Echeverria, Ana
Romero, Luis
Navia, Rodrigo
Hunter, Renato
Echeverria, Ana
Romero, Luis
Navia, Rodrigo
Hunter, Renato
Profesor GuĆa
Authors
Date
Datos de publicaciĆ³n:
10.1016/j.cep.2022.109215
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND PROCESSING-PROCESS INTENSIFICATION,Vol.183,,2023
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND PROCESSING-PROCESS INTENSIFICATION,Vol.183,,2023
Tipo de recurso
Article
Keywords
Materia geogrƔfica
Collections
Abstract
Epoxidized oils are widely used in the polymer industry to obtain biodegradable, environmentally friendly epoxy resins. This work examines solvent extraction and oil epoxidation from a wet paste of the microalga Nanno-chloropsis gaditana using microwave technology. An appropriate extraction solvent containing a mixture of a polar and a nonpolar solvent was selected. The results reveal that a chloroform/methanol ratio of 1:1 (v/v) promotes the high selectivity of unsaturated fatty acids of the oils for epoxidation. A central composite design was used to optimize the yield of epoxidized oils. The conditions that maximized the oxirane oxygen yield to 82.43% were as follows: temperature of 95 degrees C, catalyst dosage 0.25% wt, and heptane/oil mass ratio 3:4, using a formic acid/hydrogen peroxide 0.3:1.1 molar ratio. The epoxidation kinetics of microalgal oils and a mathematical model were developed. Using the least-squares method to fit the experimental data, the epoxidation rate constant found was on the order of 10-4 L mol-1 s-1 and the activation energy of 15.62 kJ/mol. Finally, the process presented some advantages due to the elimination of the drying step and the decrease in both reaction time and solvent dosage used during extraction and epoxidation.