Claims
- 1. A method for making a natural oil-based polyol from natural oil, comprising:(a) adding a peroxyacid to natural oil wherein said peroxyacid and said natural oil react to form an epoxidized natural oil; and (b) adding said epoxidized natural oil directly from step (a) without intermediate purification to a mixture of an alcohol, water, and a catalytic amount of fluoboric acid wherein said water is about 10% to 30% by weight of all the components and wherein said epoxidized natural oil reacts with said mixture to form a natural oil-based polyol.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said alcohol is methanol, ethanol, or isopropanol.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said peroxyacid is selected from the group consisting of m-chloroperbenzoic acid and peracetic acid.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said peroxyacid is added to said natural oil in a dropwise fashion, said natural oil and said peroxyacid are stirred so as to react to form epoxidized natural oil, said epoxidized natural oil is added dropwise to said mixture, and said mixture and said epoxidized natural oil are stirred wherein a natural oil-based polyol forms.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said peroxyacid is in a solvent, said epoxidized natural oil is formed in said solvent, and said epoxidized natural oil in said solvent is added to said mixture.
- 6. The method of claim 5, wherein said solvent is selected from the group consisting of acetic acid, formic acid, and chloroform.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) takes place at about the boiling temperature of said water and alcohol mixture.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said catalytic amount of fluoboric acid is between about 0.1% and 0.5% by weight of all the components.
- 9. The method of claim 1, wherein said catalytic amount of fluoboric acid is about 1.25% by weight of the amount of epoxidized natural oil used.
- 10. A method of making a natural oil-based polyol from epoxidized natural oil, comprising:hydroxylating epoxidized natural oil with a catalytic amount of fluoboric acid, an alcohol, and water, wherein said water is about 10% to 30% by weight of all the components.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said catalytic amount of fluoboric acid is between about 0.1% and 0.5% by weight of all the components.
- 12. The method of claim 10, wherein said epoxidized natural oil has about 2 to 6 epoxy groups per molecule.
- 13. The method of claim 10, wherein said alcohol is methanol, ethanol or isopropanol.
- 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the molar ratio of alcohol to water is between about 2:1 and 9:1.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/187,992, filed Nov. 6, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,433.
US Referenced Citations (10)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
39 43 080 |
Jul 1991 |
DE |
41 15 146 |
Nov 1992 |
DE |
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Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
Scholnick et al., “Urethane Foams from Animal Fats. IV. Rigid Foams from Epoxidized Glycerides,” Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, vol. 45, pp. 76-77, 1968. |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/187992 |
Nov 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/612716 |
|
US |