Summary

Epoxidised oleic acid is generally regarded as a high-value oleochemical due to its wide range of industrial applications including cosmetics, personal care and pharmaceutical products. Epoxidised oleic acid is also extensively chosen by industry because of its good performance as an intermediate chemical and because it can be obtained from renewable sources. In this study, the epoxidation of oleic acid was achieved by reacting it with formic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of sulphuric acid as a catalyst. The in-situ epoxidation was performed in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) at selected optimum reaction parameters. The characteristics of the crude oleic acid and the epoxidised oleic acid were determined.