Deacidification of high acidic rubber seed oil by reesterification with glycerol

Abstract

Some studies have shown that rubber seed oil (RSO) from the seed of rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis) has potential technical applications. However, the high free fatty acid (FFA) associated with the oil may be a limiting factor in its applications. In this study, crude rubber seed oil (RSO) containing 37.69% FFA was deacidified using 4.3-5.6% of glycerol. The reactions were carried out at a pressure of 20mmHg in the presence of zinc dust and zinc chloride catalysts added separately at high temperature (150 ‐ 250 0 C). The progress of the reaction was monitored by determining the FFA at various time intervals. The FFA content in the RSO was reduced to 1.5% in six hours when 4.3% glycerol was used with zinc dust at a temperature of 200 0 C while the triglycerides content of the oil increased from 40.32% in the crude oil to 80.62% in the deacidified RSO. The study showed that this process is effective in the deacidification of RSO without loss of neutral glycerides as in alkali neutralization.