Monitoring of transesterification of palm oil by differential scanning calorimetry

Chemical transesterification was conducted to obtain triacylglycerol (TG) c ontaining maximum concentrations of trisaturated and triunsaturated TG in p alm oil. Catalyst(sodium methoxide) concentration of 0.1-0.5%, reaction tem perature of 50-92C and reaction time of 30-480 min were applied in 20 treat ments. Concentrations of trisaturated and triunsaturated TG, as well as mel ting points and iodine values were monitored by differential scanning calor imetric (DSC) techniques. The results showed that maximum trisaturated and triunsaturated TG achieved for refined-bleached-deodorized (RBD) palm oil w ere 17.10 and 7.50%, respectively, using 0.42% catalyst, at 58C in 389 min. These amounts were higher compared to control (untransesterified) RED palm oil i.e 7.45 and 4.92%, respectively. The melting points of the products w ere higher compared to the control, while the iodine values were not signif icantly changed in all of the treatments.