The aim of this work is to investigate the potential
combination
of phase-transfer catalysis (PTC) and microemulsions for the rapid
epoxidation reaction of the double bonds present in methyl oleate,
a monounsaturated vegetable oil. The reaction takes place in the presence
of a quaternary ammonium salt, hydrogen peroxide, sodium tungstate,
and phosphoric acid without solvents to which a nonionic surfactant
is added. Two surfactants were tested: polysorbate 80 and Triton X-100.
The results show that the coupling of PTC and micellar catalysis (MC)
has reduced the reaction time by almost half of the epoxidation by
PTC in the absence of surfactants. This intensification can be attributed
to the behavior of the reaction medium formed by micelles playing
the role of nanoreactors. The estimation of mass-transfer and chemical
kinetic parameters was performed using the thermal power profile measured
in a calorimetric reactor RC1-RTCal. Mass balance is evaluated using
the main epoxidation reaction and that of the catalyst regeneration,
whereas the mass-transfer kinetics between phases is determined by
using a double film model. The activation energy of the epoxidation
reaction was found to be 44 kJ·mol–1. Safety
parameters, maximum temperature of synthesis reaction, and T
D24 (temperature at which time
to maximum rate is 24 h) were also determined, and their corresponding
results demonstrated that this epoxidation process remains thermally
safe.