Green approach for the preparation of biodegradable lubricant base stock from epoxidized vegetable oil

A novel process for the production of biodegradable lubricant-based stocks from epoxidized vegetable oil with a lower pour point via cationic ion-exchange resins as catalysts was developed. This involves two steps, first, ring-opening reactions by alcoholysis followed by esterification of the resultant hydroxy group in the first step.The ring-opening reaction of epoxidized soybean oil with different alcohols such as n-butanol, iso-amyl alcohol and 2-ethylhexanol was carried out in presence of Amberlyst 15 (Dry) as a catalyst; identity of products was confirmed by IR and NMR. Pour points of the products were observed in the range of −5 to −15 °C. The hydroxy group of ring-opening product of n-butanol was further reacted with acetic anhydride in presence of catalyst Amberlyst 15 (Dry), which was previously used to carry out ring-opening reaction by alcoholysis and identity of the resulting product was confirmed by IR. Pour point of the resulting product was observed to be −5 °C.