Methanol-enhanced chemical interesterification of sunflower oil with methyl acetate

The aim of this work was to investigate the commercial mixture of methanolic potassium methoxide as catalyst in chemical interesterification of sunflower oil with methyl acetate. The presence of methanol significantly enhanced the reaction process because it increased the reaction rate, improved the safety of the process and facilitated the manipulation of the catalyst. The reactions were performed at 50 °C using a methyl acetate-to-oil molar ratio (MAOMR) of 12–48 and a catalyst-to-oil molar ratio (COMR) of 0.1–0.2. The optimum conditions were achieved with the MAOMR of 48 and the COMR of 0.1 and the final product composition was: fatty acid methyl esters (77.0 wt.%), triacetin (12.1 wt.%), diacetinmonoglyceride (4.0 wt.%) and diacetin, monoacetin and glycerol fraction (6.8 wt.%). Finally, technical feasibility of the intermediate diacetinmonoglyceride elimination through the addition of higher amounts of methanol was also evaluated.