Synthesis of environmental benign biolubricant from wild castor seed by reactive extraction and optimization

Castor oil alkyl esters are a possible biolubricant since they contain 90% hydroxyl fatty acid, which improves the oil's lubricity. Due to the limitations of the conventional approach, castor oil propyl ester (COPE) from wild castor seed was synthesized by reactive extraction. The factors influencing yield of reaction was optimised by response surface methodology to obtain a high yield. The influence of amount of catalyst, propanol to oil proportion, temperature, and rotating speed on castor oil propyl ester yield was investigated using a central composite design.The optimised reaction condition is propanol to oil molar proportion of 275: 1 with 1.5 wt% of catalyst loading at 90 °C and rotating speed of 450 rpm with COPE yield of 78.6% in 3hrs. Physico-chemical properties of alkyl esters were determined. COPE can be employed as a bioadditive to ultra-low sulphur diesel fuels due to its high lubricity.