Synthesis of Methyl Ester Sulphonate Surfactant from Palm Oil Methyl Ester by Using UV or Ozone as an Initiator

Methyl ester sulphonate (MES) derived from palm oil is environmental friendly and offers good detergent properties. Although Alpha methyl ester sulphonate (alpha-MES) has been produced by many producers in detergent industries, it has some problems such as disalt formation and low water solubility. In order to overcome these drawbacks, MES is synthesized via sulphoxidation by using different initiators. Ozone is one of the most interesting agents because of its highly oxidizing power, which can react with organic compound rapidly under mild conditions. In this work, ozone and UV are used as an initiator in order to generate radicals along carbon chain to react with sulphur dioxide and oxygen. The reaction is performed in a photochemical reactor with UVC lamps (253.7 nm). The outlet product is transferred to separation and purification steps by liquid extraction techniques. The obtained products are analysed by FT-IR and ESI-MS to confirm MES products. When reaction time is fixed at 4 h, conversions are around 7.5, 6.9 and 13.5 wt% for UV, ozone and UV/ozone systems, respectively.