Oleochemical Synthesis of Sucrose Esters from Methyl Esters of Palm Stearic and Oleic Fatty Acids

Abstract Palm oil contains fatty acids such as stearic ranges from 3.40 – 5.47% and oleic ranges from 34.85 – 40.78% which can be used as materials for the synthesis of sucrose ester. This study aimed to increase and optimize the potential of palm oil raw materials through the oleochemical synthesis of sucrose ester. The process of sucrose ester synthesis consisted of two stages, i.e., the esterification process of fatty acids into methyl esters and the transesterification process of fatty acid methyl esters with sucrose to become sucrose esters. Esterification of stearic and oleic fatty acids was performed using H2SO4 catalyst and methanol as a solvent. Transesterification of sucrose with stearic and oleic methyl esters was performed using two types of catalysts K2CO3 6% and Na2CO3 6%, without solvents. The results showed that sucrose ester made from stearic acid methyl ester with K2CO3 catalyst tended to achieve better performance and physicochemical properties as follows: pH ranged from 10.29 – 10.45, foam stability ranged from 55.497 – 88.082%, emulsion stability ranged from 40.211 – 78.435%, surface tension ranged from 25.4 – 27.60 dyne/cm, and interfacial tension ranged from 9.69 – 10.91dynes/cm.