Oxypropylation of sugar beet pulp. 1. Optimisation of the reaction

An oxypropylation reaction was carried out by suspending sugar beet pulp in propylene oxide in the presence of a basic catalyst and heating the result ing mixture under pressure. Optimisation of the conditions (pulp granulomet ry, type and amount of catalyst, relative proportion of pulp with respect t o propylene oxide, amount of residual moisture and temperature) allowed qua ntitative conversion of the pulp into polyols possessing different viscosit ies and OH numbers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.