Production of polyols from canola oil and their chemical identification and physical properties

The feasibility of a method based on ozonolysis and hydrogenation reactions for the production of polyols from unsaturated canola oil has been demonstrated. Polyol products with primary alcohol functional groups at position nine of each fatty acid ester in the original triacylglycerol have been produced from canola oil. Short straight-chain alcohols were also produced and were removed by wiped-blade molecular distillation. The pure components of the polyol, i.e. mono-ol, diol and triol were separated by flash chromatography, and identified by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), H-1-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), C-13-NMR as well as mass spectrometry. Polyol identification was facilitated by the use of a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to determine the composition of the polyol mixture, which can be exploited as a quality-control mechanism in designing novel polyol feedstocks. Basic correlations were established between the molecular diversity of the polyols and their physicochemical properties, such as hydroxyl number, acidity number, and viscosity. It has been found that the produced polyols are suitable for processing methods employing polyols for the production of polyurethanes and can be manipulated to create polyurethanes with desirable properties.