Fargo, USA Optimizing Process Parameters of Epoxidized Sucrose Soyate Synthesis for Industrial Scale Production with Chemspeed’s Fully Automated AUTOPLANT PRORES “There is a growing need to produce epoxidized sucrose soyate (ESS) at an industrial scale for large-scale applications in coatings and material science. Industrial scale production of ESS requires optimization of the process conditions to minimize cost without compromising resin quality. Therefore, a robust model was developed that predicts the conversion of double bonds to oxirane under different process scenarios. Data for the model were obtained by epoxidizing 30 g batches of sucrose soyate at three reactor temperatures (55, 60, and 65 °C), three molar ratios of acetic acid to oil unsaturation (0.25:1, 0.375:1, and 0.5:1), three molar ratios of H2O2 to oil unsaturation (1:1, 1.5:1, and 2:1), three catalyst amounts (1.5, 3.75, and 6 g), and three reaction times (3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 h). The model was highly significant with an adjusted R2 of 97.6% and predicted R2 of 96.8%. The root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of 0.54 showed that the model was a good fit in predicting optimal epoxidation conditions at different process levels. ESS samples epoxidized at 60–65 °C for 4.5–5 h had conversion greater than 98% even when reagent amounts were reduced by 18–20%. A similar resin quality was also attained when one of the optimal conditions was scaled-up 100 fold to a 3 kg batch. Therefore, this model can be used to determine appropriate processing conditions for epoxidizing vegetable oil-based compounds at any scale with sufficient mixing and temperature control.” 
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Optimizing Process Parameters of Epoxidized Sucrose Soyate Synthesis for Industrial Scale Production
Ewumbua M. Monono†, James A. Bahr‡, Scott W. Pryor†, Dean C. Webster§, Dennis P. Wiesenborn† †Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, ‡The Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and §Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota 58108, United States Org. Process Res. Dev., DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.5b00251
