Investigation of Kinetic Parameters for Methanolysis of Para Rubber Seed Oil by CH₃/SO₃H-MCM41 Catalyst

Abstract

The methanolysis of para rubber seed oil in the presence of the catalyst CH₃/SO₃H-MCM-41 was investigated with the aim of improving catalytic stability. Using 5.06 wt% of CH₃/SO₃H-MCM-41, we obtained a 95 % yield of the fatty acid methyl ester. A kinetic study was conducted in which the reaction time and temperature were varied in the range of 30-150 min and 120-160 °C, respectively. The activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and reaction order were determined. It was shown that the reaction approached first order kinetics (n = 1.08, R² > 0.99). The activation energy (Ea) and frequency factor (A) were found to be 29.2 kJ/mol and 129.3 min^-1 (mol/g)^-0.0807, respectively.