Synthesis of Anionic Surfactant from Jatropha Oil
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Due to the high cost of surfactant production caused by petrochemical feed
stocks, considerable attention has been given to non-edible vegetable oils as an
alternative source of feedstock. In this paper, a new non-edible oil derived
surfactant based on Jatropha plant is synthesized. In this study the objective
is synthesis and characterization of anionic surfactant from Jatropha Oil to
substitute petroleum based anionic surfactant.
The oil of jatropha was extracted by using Mechanical press and
characterization of the oil has been done in order to make sure the oil is best fit
for synthesizing anionic surfactant. Using transesterification process the
extracted oil reacts with methanol by using catalyst sodium hydroxide to
produce methyl ester. The molar ratio of H2SO4 to methyl ester, reaction
temperature, reaction time and agitation speed on the sulfonation process of
methyl ester produced was statistically investigated and important conditions
are determined.
A four-factor central composite design (CCD) combined with response surface
modeling (RSM) and optimization was employed for maximizing the yield of
sulfonated methyl ester based on 20 different experimental data. Analysis of
variance (ANOVA) and other tests were used to test the significance of the
independent variables and their interactions. Adequacy of the model was tested
by the correlation between experimental and predicted response and
enumeration of prediction errors. The predicted maximum active mater (68.3%)
was found under the optimum conditions of the process variables (1:1 molar
ratio of H2SO4 to methyl ester, 65oC of reaction temperature and 1.5 hours of
reaction time) the result is close to the experimental value (69%) determined.
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Process Engineering Stream