Abstract—Starch fatty acid esters, a biodegradable and a renewable thermoplastics materials, are commonly synthesized in organic solvents that have high environmental impact. This manuscript describes an exploratory study on the synthesis of starch esters using various fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) such as methyl myristate, methyl laurate, methyl oleate and methyl palmitate in densified carbon dioxide as a green solvent. A series of experiments were conducted in order to investigate the influence of temperature (100 °C, 110 °C, 120 °C), pressure (100 bar, 120 bar, 150 bar) and type of methyl esters on reactivity and the characteristics of the products. Within the experimental range, the highest DS value (0.45) is achieved at pressure of 100 bar, temperature of 120 oC, with methyl palmitate as the reagent. In addition, the introduction of fatty acid chains into the starch backbone significantly altered thermal properties of the native sago starch.
Index Terms—Transesterification, sago starch, fatty acid methyl ester, densified CO
2.
The authors are with the Chemical Engineering Department, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung 40141, West Java, Indonesia (coresponding author: Erik Hermawan; e-mail: hmuljana@gmail.com).
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Cite: Erik Hermawan, Lenna Rosyanti, Leonita Megasari, Asaf Kleopas Sugih, and Henky Muljana, "Transesterification of Sago Starch Using Various Fatty Acid Methyl Esters in Densified CO2," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 152-155, 2015.
