Synthesis of Alkyl Esters from Vegetable Oils Catalyzed by Lemon Juice as Natural Catalyst and Ethanol as Reagent

Topwe Milongwe Mwene-Mbeja, Jo

Abstract

This study was to develop green methodology to convert vegetable oils into ethyl esters of fatty acids using lemon juice (pH=2.8) as a natural catalyst and ethanol as reagent. It is a first application of lemon juice to synthesize ethyl esters from fatty acids of vegetable oils. We used the sulfuric acid as a control to compare the catalytic activity of lemon juice to that of sulfuric acid.