A highly efficient, green and recoverable catalytic system for the epoxidation of fatty esters and biodiesel with H2O2

A highly efficient and green strategy for the epoxidation of fatty esters, combining a green oxidant (aqueous hydrogen peroxide) and a recyclable catalyst (a seleninic acid derivative) is presented. The possibility of integrating renewable solvents derived from glycerol in the productive cycle of biodiesel commodities is also explored. Fluorinated solvents (both commercial and glycerol-derived) play a double key role on this methodology: on the one hand, they strongly accelerate epoxidation reaction with respect to common non-fluorinated solvents and, on the other hand, some of them allow catalyst recycling. Mono- and polyunsaturated fatty esters, as well as soy biodiesel have been epoxidized with excellent yields and selectivities towards epoxide under the optimal conditions and with minimum catalyst loads. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.