• CSIR - Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute
  • G20
Bio-based Fuels & Chemicals (other than seaweeds)

Title of Process/ Know-how/ Product/Design/Equipment

Preparation of functionalized castor oil derivatives from epoxidized castor oil using solid acid and base catalysts

  • IPR
    IPR Status & Details:
  • US 10260023 B2, CN106536494B, IN 2225/DEL/2014, WO 2016020941A3, BR 112017001289A2
Application/Uses/Problem being addressed

Lubricants, fuel additives, in automobile industries, in polymers, etc.

Salient Technical Features including Competing Features/ Impact
  • Use of castor oil and its derivatives as raw material which are very cheap non-edible oil.
  • Low-cost and commercially available catalysts are used as solid catalysts for the preparation of functionalized castor oil derivatives such as ring-opened glyceryl ricinoleates, epoxy alkyl ricinoleates and ring-opened alkyl ricinoleates.
  • High yields of the products under benign reaction conditions
  • Reaction chemistry can be altered by choosing different catalysts
  • Catalysts are recyclable
  • Physical properties of the functionalized castor oil derivatives suggest the possibility of tailoring the values by suitably choosing the appropriate nucleophiles/reaction chemistry or by simple blending of them.
    • TRL Level & Scale of Development:
    TRL 5
    • Methoxylated castor polyol (MCP) and isopropoxylated castor polyol (IPCP) - Scaled up at 100 g
    • Epoxy methyl ricinoleate (EMR) - Scaled up at 50 g
    • Methoxylated methyl ricinoleate (MMR) - Scaled up at 250 g
    • Remaining all reactions - scaled up at 25 g
    Business scope & opportunity (in terms of scale, cost, market etc.):

    As India being a largest producer of castor oil, abundant scope is there to diversify different oleochemicals industry for several applications, such as lubricants, plasticizers, additives, etc.

    Environmental Considerations:

    Utilization of non-edible source castor oil) for the preparation of value-added chemicals to overcome food vs fuel issues created by edible oils.

    Catalysts are easily recoverable (simple filtration) without any further addition of chemicals and reusable.

    Status of Licensing:
    Ready for licensing
    Status of Commercialization:
    Not applicable
    Major Raw Materials Needed

    Epoxidized castor oil (sourced from M/s Jayant Agro Organics Ltd., Mumbai).

    Major Plant Equipment and Machinery Required

    For reaction - Stirred tank reactor with water cooler system; Filtration assembly; Rotary evaporator for purification of the product mixture (to remove the unreacted nucleophiles/alcohols and solvents

    Techno-Economics

    Tentative Price:

    Epoxidized castor oil: approx. ₹100/Kg

    Methanol: approx. ₹20-30/L

    Toluene: approx. ₹50-60/L

    Functionalized castor oil products: approx. ₹250-500/Kg (Exact market value is not available because these are new molecules)

    Technology Package

    Know-how for process of several functionalized castor oil derivatives from ECO; Demonstration of the processes; Equipment necessary for pilot scale; License fee, royalty and other financial details are available on request.