Biolubricants derived from poultry waste oil and its methyl esters by epoxidation and epoxide ring-opening-a comparative study

Poultry waste poses serious environmental and health problems because it emanates offensive odor and promotes fly and rodent breeding. Appropriate utilization of such waste and its by-products can simultaneously prevent side effects and provide an economic advantage. In this study, poultry waste oil and its methyl ester derivatives were converted to biolubricants in a two-step sequential chemical modification process: epoxidation using in situ formed peroxyformic acid and epoxide ring-opening with isoamyl alcohol in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid. The biolubricants obtained from the epoxidized chicken waste oil and epoxidized methyl esters by the ring-opening reaction were characterized. The viscosity index and pour point of the biolubricant synthesized from epoxidized chicken waste oil were 111.32 and - 2 degrees C respectively. It was observed that the pour point of the biolubricant produced for chicken oil is lower compared to the pour point of the biolubricant produced from FAME. However, the lubricants derived from epoxidized methyl esters exhibited slightly higher oxidative stability (18 h). Our results suggest that lubricant synthesized from poultry waste oil can be considered feasible alternative to petroleum-based lubricants as it matches the kinematic viscosity and low-temperature properties of the commercial lubricant ISO VG 32 grade oil.