ИСТИНА

Modified vegetable oils or fatty acid esters have already been established as environmentally friendly alternatives for commonly-used chemicals. Epoxidized oils and their derivatives are employed as polymer plasticizers and lubricants and it is promising to use them for producing monomers of epoxide resins and polyurethanes [l]. In this work the obtaining of epoxide-containing mixtures by oxidation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) by air at the presence of molybdenum catalyst was suggested. The introduction of this method allows to make the process of epoxidation of oils and FAME harmless, eco-friendly and cheaper compared with well-known ones [2]. Epoxidation process was proceeded in bubble column. It has been found out that the changing of the parameters, such as temperature and air supply speed do not influence on the ratio of products got. All the reactions occur through the peroxyl-radical intermediates including the epoxide formation ones. So the tradition mechanism of the olefin's epoxidation by organic hydroperoxidescatalysed by transition metal complexes does not take place in this system. This fact was proved by physicochemical analyzes as well as kinetical modeling. The selectivity of epoxide rings formation depends on the raw material content only. The highest selectivity was observed when the monounsaturated fatty acid esters are oxidizing