Micro-reactor for transesterification of plant seed oils

The fatty acid compositions of vegetable or other plant seed oils are generally determined by gas chromatography (GC). Methyl esters (the most volatile derivatives) are the preferred derivatives for GC analysis. Esters of higher alcohols are good for the separation of volatile and positional isomers. All the esters of the C-1-C-8 alcohols of vegetable oils were silmilarly prepared by passing the reaction mixture containing the desired alcohol, oil and tetrahydrofuran through the micro-reactor (a 3-mL, dispossible syringe packed with 0.5 g of NaOH powder). The reaction products were acidified with acetic acid and the mixture was analyzed by high-performance sire exclusion chromatography and GC. Transesterification was quantitative for primary alcohols, but an appreciable amount of free fatty acids was formed for secondary alcohols. Coriander seed oil was quantitatively esterified with 2-ethyl 1-hexanol with the micro-reactor in less than 1 min. Oleic and petroselinic acid 2-ethyl 1-hexyl esters are baseline separated on an Rtx-2330 capillary column (30 m x 0.25 mm, 0.25 mu m film thickness).