Epoxidation of soybean oil at maximum heat removal and single addition of all reactants

The epoxidized soybean oil is obtained through the reaction of a lower peracid with the unsaturations of the vegetable oil molecules. The reaction is highly exothermic and temperature control is fundamental to avoid runaway. In industrial practice, a semibatch process is employed, in which performic acid is generated in situ by the addition of hydrogen peroxide to oil and formic acid vigorously mixed. Hydrogen peroxide is added gradually as the key procedure to maintain proper temperature control; as a result, the process time is usually long. In the present work the intensification of this process is investigated under conditions of a highly effective heat removal system and all reactants are added at once, thus making the process simpler and faster but still safe. A simple mathematical model was tested to represent the experimental data.