Epoxidation of Vegetable Oils, Unsaturated Fatty Acids and Fatty Acid Esters: A Review

A comprehensive review of recent existing methods of epoxidation of vegetable oils, unsaturated fatty acids and alkyl esters of unsaturated fatty acids has been presented. The importance of epoxidized vegetable oils and their applications in the production of polyols and polyurethanes was discussed. Interests of researchers have been mainly focused on the development of advantageous technological parameters of vegetable oils epoxidation. The epoxidations with peracetic acid or performic acid generated in situ were mainly performed in the presence of strongly acidic catalysts. The influence of process variables such as temperature, stirring speed, the molar ratio of carboxylic acid and hydrogen peroxide to the amount of ethylenic unsaturation, amount of catalyst and reaction time on the course of epoxidation has been investigated.