SYNTHESIS OF POLYOL FROM XIMENIA AMERICANA SEED OIL

Vegetable oil particularly Ximenia americana seed oil is an alternative raw material to produce polyol for the next generation. This is important since it can lessen the world’s reliance on petroleum oil and the limited amount of non-renewable resources can be saved as a heritage for future generations. Ximenia americana seed oil was extracted using hot-water process and finally epoxidised in a solvent-free process in a three neck flask with the use of acetic acid as oxygen carrier, sulphuric acid as a catalyst and hydrogen peroxide. The aim was to assess the potential of Ximenia americana seed oil in polyol synthesis. The studied parameters were iodine value conversion and oxirane oxygen content at varying time from (0-6 hours) and different temperatures (40-80 0 C). Epoxidised Ximenia americana seed oil with up to 95.95 conversions was produced at a time of 6 hours and temperature of 80 0 C. The result shows that the conversion of iodine value increased with reaction time and temperature. The highest amount of oxirane oxygen content of 3.60 % was achieved at 4 hours reaction time and temperature of 600C. Interestingly, the oxirane oxygen content increased with reaction time and temperature then decreased after having achieved the optimal point. Hence this indicated that the optimal operating condition for epoxidation reaction of Ximenia americana seed oil was achieved at a reaction time of 4 hours and temperature of 60 0 C after which hydroxylation was carried out to produce polyol