Kinetics and parametric study of transesterification synthesis of biolubricant from melon-based methyl esters

ABSTRACT

The synthesis of melon biolubricant (MBL) was performed by transesterification of melon methyl ester (MME) with trimethylolpropane (TMP) using calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) catalyst. The effect of mole ratio, temperature and time on the synthesis of MBL was studied. Different kinetic models were analyzed for the transesterification of MME with TMP. The optimum mole ratio, time and temperature for the synthesis of MBL was 4:1, 5 h and 150 °C, respectively at 75.0% yield of MBL with a mixture of TMP monoester (ME), diester (DE) and triester (TE) at 1.4%, 15.4% and 83.2%, respectively. The second order kinetic model gave the best fit to the experimental data with average linear correlation coefficient, R² value of 0.993, average root mean square (RMS) value of ±1.7% and average standard deviation (SD) value of 0.013. The estimated kinetic energy was 34.54 kJ/mol. The basic lubrication properties of MBL were found comparable to other plant based biolubricants such as palm oil, sesame and rapeseed biolubricants.

KEYWORDS:

• Transesterification
• melon
• biolubricant
• trimethylolpropane ester
• kinetics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.