My chemical engineering thesis was about finding a replacement for
PbO as cat. for the industrial alkyd synthesis. The project was in co-operation
with Vianova resins A/S. And after the end of my thesis, they haired me
to finish the project for them.
The reason, that vianova wanted to replace Pbo was because of its toxic
properties and it is also forbidden by the Danish Environmental authorities.
In the following paragraphs, I will give a resume of my work . If
interested, email me for the further information.
Alkyd synthesis is done in the following two steps:
1. Alcoholyse
2. Esterification
Therefor it was necessary to find a catalyst,
which was active in the both steps, as PbO. I chose to test the following
catalysts in the first step.
* LiOH
* Tindilaurat
* Tinoxalat
* MBTO
* Fascat
* GaO
* TILCOM BIP
* TILCOM TNBT
* In addition, Diethylesterphoracis.
The test was done by measuring the amount of MG (monoglycerid) in the batch after 25 min. The amount of MG was measured with help of GPC. I found LiOH and Fascat to fulfil my requirements.
The next thing was to se if they were also active in the second step, the test was done by measuring acid-values of the batch, with help of N-IR. The results showed at LiOH were as god cat. as PbO , but Fascat was much faster.