Environmental Friendly Plasticizer (Epoxy Fatty Acid Methyl Ester "EFAME")

we are proud to offer our Production of Environmental friendly Plasticizer as replacement of "Phthalic Acid" & "Phthalate"  in the processes of Production of Plastic.

EFAME is a good and cheap Eco- friendly plasticizer, that looks tiny yellow and smells little cooking oil flavor under normal temperatures. The epoxy fatty acid methyl ester is a natural vegetable oil non-toxic plasticizer with raw materials of new environmentally friendly, it can effectively replace octyl phthalate (DOP), or dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and another growth plasticizer that produce toxic PVC products. International Food and Drug Administration has approved that epoxy fatty acid methyl ester can be used as food, medicine packaging materials, and additives for toys and home decoration materials.

Introduction:

Methyl esters are generally viewed as chemical intermediates between the parent oils and some other chemical and this should be borne in mind as you read the following. Market interest in methyl esters really got going in the 1950s when they were seen as providing a fruitful route to fatty alcohols. Fatty alcohols themselves were of interest as a means of manufacturing synthetic detergents which, at that time, were growing in importance. As the man said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same” and, not surprisingly, this is very true in this instance.

Fatty alcohol production, with a world market of something like two million tons, is still the biggest user of methyl esters. More recently, another large volume use has come to the fore and, amazingly, this too has its roots in the past, this time as far back as 1912 and the advent of the Diesel engine. Rudolf Diesel himself remarked at this time on the fact that because his invention could use vegetable oils, these might one day become as important as mineral oils were then, and further pointed out (rather prophetically) that because of the use of vegetable oils, motor power would still be possible, even when stores of solid and liquid fuels were exhausted. What Diesel did not foresee was the increased abundance of rapeseed oil in the EU, initially brought about by overproduction of rape on EU farms, due to subsidy. Necessity being the mother of invention, as ever, led to a quest to find additional uses for this excess of oil and the bio-fuels industry went into growth mode.

The recent commercial production of “bio-diesel” fuels was estimated at in excess of 800,000 tons worldwide with new production facilities coming on-line every year. Later, because of the growth in demand, the utilization of “set-aside” land in the EU (land taken out of food production usage) has been allowed for crops destined specifically for fuel use. Methyl esters of C18 and longer chain lengths are suitable for direct use in engines (although some proprietary additives are usually necessary to provide year-round suitability). Esters of Soybean (largely in the US), Rapeseed and Sunflower oils have been successfully utilized and, with the exception of oxides of nitrogen, are generally held to give lower emissions than petroleum-based diesel products while matching them in other respects.

In surfactant production, as well as supporting the manufacture of alcohol- based materials, the esters themselves can be sulphonated (reacted with sulphur trioxide either directly or via oleum or chlorsulphonic acids). The resulting Methyl Ester Sulphonate (MES) is used in detergents. This usage apparently grew out of the search for a gentler way of accessing vitamins inherent in the parent fats and oils so that the vitamin products would not be destroyed in the processing. Unfortunately, the by- product of this extraction process is a large amount of methyl ester and, to make the whole process viable, a use had to be found which added value to this stage. The result was the production of MES. The overall economics of these linked processes just about works and leads to the production of a few tens of thousands of tons of MES surfactant. As a standalone route into surfactant production, this process has not been a major success to-date. If methyl esters are subjected to the same type of reaction as was discussed in their production (above) substitution of one alcohol component with another (called inter esterification), some useful products can result. Probably the most well-known of these is Isopropyl Myristate (IPM) which is produced by reacting C14 methyl ester with isopropyl alcohol. IPM is used in small volumes in the plasticizer industry but has widespread uses in cosmetics in aerosol antiperspirants, bath oils, shaving preparations and creams and lotions. IPM’s main role is as either a lubricant or an emollient. Methyl esters are gaining recognition for their solvent properties which are rated highly.

There is an obvious attraction towards the esters and that is the potentially hazardous nature of the alternatives, which are normally aromatic or chlorinated hydrocarbons in derivation. Mid-cut methyl ester finds solvent-type uses in the printing industry, while heavy-cut esters are being increasingly used for heavy-duty solvent applications such as tool cleaning in road-making (removing tar and pitch residues). This use as a “green” solvent is growing.

AND FINALLY . . .

The production of methyl esters is just one more route in which value is added to natural oils through the expertise of the chemical industry. With rapeseed oil as an example, the parent oil might be bought for 450-550 Euros/ton. Light-cut esters sell for about 900 Euros/ton, Mid-cut for about 1000 and heavy-cut for about 500- 700 Euros/ton. Perhaps the greatest value that these important intermediates add though is in the pathways that they provide to other, life-experience-enhancing products (such as cosmetics) and in their ability to replace and therefore provide an alternative to products whose raw material supply is finite and will eventually be exhausted. This is perhaps another area where we might ultimately owe the preservation of our lifestyle in the future, to the products of the humble oilseed.

Description:

-  What is EFAME?

-  It is a molecule result from Epoxidation reaction of FAME with the specification and features of Epoxy molecule with the advantage of its freeness from toxic & carcinogenic materials such as “Phthalate component”.

-  Chemical name: 

Oxirane octanoic acid, 3-octyl-, methyl ester, trans-;Methyl 3-octyloxiraneoctanoate;methyl 8-[(2R,3R)-3-octyloxiran-2-yl] octanoate

-  Molecular Formula : C19H36O3

-  Epoxy fatty acid methyl ester is light yellow oil liquid under normal temperature, is made from natural plant oil. As a kind of new type epoxy plasticizer, it can efficiently substitute DOP and DBP in the production of PVC products, and contributes 20~30 portion in the quantity of the plasticizers in total. It is well consistent with PVC resin, stable under light and heat, and volatilizes little. It can be applied to all PVC products, especially in PVC sheet and artificial leather products. It is widely used in the cable wire, PVC tube, PVC sole and gland strip and so on.

But what is epoxy?

Cyclic ether with a three-atom ring. This ring approximates an equilateral triangle, which makes it strained, and hence highly reactive, more so than other ethers. They are produced on a large scale for many applications. In general, low molecular weight epoxides are colorless and nonpolar, and often volatile.

Uses of EFAME:

-  The epoxy fatty acid methyl ester has good compatibility with PVC resin, and the plasticizing effect is obvious. The addition of epoxy fatty acid methyl ester can obviously improve the physical properties of the products, prolong the aging time, and have good synergistic effects with the metal stabilizers such as barium, cadmium and zinc. Epoxy fatty acid methyl ester is widely used in PVC foam PVC calendaring film, artificial leather, garment leather, wire and cable, disposable PVC gloves, children's toys, infusion tube, medical equipment, refrigerator seals, food packaging film, floor leather, advertising cloth, recycled plastic granules for products. At the same time, epoxy fatty acid methyl ester has good lubricity, compatibility and dispersion. It can also be used as surfactant and dispersant in epoxy coating, epoxy resin and other industries.

-  Plasticizer (Environmental eco-friendly)

-  Rubber auxiliary agent

-  Catalytic agent for a bunch of chemical reactions

-  Biology, arts, Jewelry, Electronics, Electric components.

-  Adhesives

 Epoxy fatty acid methyl ester Characteristic:

1, Environmental protection non-toxic: products have passed QC testing, to achieve environmental protection requirements of the European union;

2,High flash point: the high flash point is not easy to volatilize when producing PVC products. When PVC is foamed, it will not explode and explode in the foam box;

3, Color: product color light or colorless does not affect the production of any transparent PVC products;

4,Epoxy value: the higher the epoxy value, the higher the plasticizing effect. At the same time, it can increase the effective substitution number and reduce the production cost of PVC products;

Quality Control:

As per any chemical product after chemical and industrial processes, we need to have Quality control system for conformity of the product for assuring the uniformity of the product each time.

Regarding EFAME we need to analyze the following spec.:

1-   Epoxy Value

2-   Acidity

3-   Water content & adorability

4-   Solvency by Methyl Ethyl Ketone

The standard spec. is to meet the following specification:

Color Shade（Pt-Co） ≤150

Acidity （mgKOH/g） ≤ 1.5

Epoxy Value （%） ≥ 3.8 

Flashing Point（℃ ） ≥ 180

moisture（ % ） ≤ 1.0

for more information just drop an email to us over Ibrahim@BioRotterdam.com

Keywords ( What are Plasticisers? PHTHALATE FREE PLASTICISERS, PLASTICISERS, PVC STABILISERS (HEAVY METAL FREE) , EPOXY PLASTICISERS)

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