Synthesis of polyols based on vegetable oil and modeling of their rheology

In this study, polyols were obtained from vegetable oils from renewable sources. Polyol, the raw material of polyurethane, is produced from petroleum. Due to the continuous increase in the price of petrol, the price of polyol increases, it damages the environment and consumes a lot of energy in the production phase. Therefore, instead of petroleum-based polyols, polyols from renewable, less costly, less harmful vegetable oils have been investigated. Vegetable oils are converted to oil-based polyols with the raw material of the polyurethane industry by a two-step process. In the first step, epoxidation, it is aimed to obtain maximum epoxy oxygen value by reaction of peroxy acid and vegetable oil. In this step, temperature, reaction time, solvent, peroxide and acid catalyst quantities are determined parameters. Epoxidized oil is hydroxylated and converted into the vegetable oil-based polyols. Specification of the obtained polyol and determination of its hydroxyl value were carried out. The polyol samples obtained from vegetable oils has been charaterized according to its composition. Experimental data were used to determine the model parameters, and as a result, the most appropriate model that matched the experimental results was determined. The rheology of vegetable oils and vegetable oil-based polyols were studied and the most appropriate rheological model for the produced polyol was determined using the MathCad software.