Production of Epoxidized Rubber Seed Oil via Lipase-Catalyzed Epoxidation

Abstract

Rubber seeds are residuals from rubber plantations containing oils. Epoxidized rubber seed oil (ERSO) was produced from rubber seed oil under different conditions withacetic acid as an oxygen carrier and hydrogen peroxide as an oxygen donor. A lipase B immobilized on macroporous acrylic resin beads was used as a biocatalyst. The lipase biocatalyst was used to optimize the epoxidation process at a temperature of 65 C and a reaction period of 18 h. Under these conditions, ERSO with the highest epoxidation percentage of 81.63 % and a low iodine value of 4.43 g iodine/kg sample was obtained. The key functional groups of ERSOs were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), in which the FTIR spectra showed the oxirane ring of ERSOs. The proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) analyses confirmed the decrease of the peak of the double bond in rubber seed oil and the existence of an epoxidized ring peak in ERSOs. These results showed that ERSOs were successfully synthesized from rubber seed oil.