[johnLeong]

Dear all,

I would like to seek advice from all of you in the industry. I have problem in defining low temperature ester. I could not find any source online which indicate what is does a low temperature ester means (defination of low temperature). Btw, I need to produce the low temperature from palm oil. Please advice. Millions of thanks!!!=)

[fledarmus]

What industry?

I'm assuming a "low temperature ester" would mean one that has a low boiling point. Low boiling point for me, in a medicinal chemistry lab, would be something below about 100C at atmospheric pressure - in other words, more volatile than water. However, palm oil is mostly oleic and palmitic acids, and the smallest (and I assume most volatile) esters derived from those acids would be the methyl esters. Methyl oleate boils at 189C at 9 torr, and methyl palmitate boils at 211C at 30 torr (from http://www.chemexper.com/), which I certainly would not consider low boiling.

In other industries, these words may have specific meanings which would be different from general usage. Given the industry, we might be able to give better answers.

[johnLeong]

Thanks for your advice, fledarmus.

For example, methyl ester has different derivative of ester in it such as methyl acetate or methyl formate. I have found that methyl acetate, methyl pentanoate, methyl formate and ethyl acetate are derived ester from palm oil which has low boiling point. I am actually looking at low temperature ester ( low boiling point ester) which can be used in cosmetic, pharmaceutical, detergent and agriculture industry. 

[fledarmus]

Thanks for your advice, fledarmus.

 I have found that methyl acetate, methyl pentanoate, methyl formate and ethyl acetate are derived ester from palm oil which has low boiling point. 

I agree that methyl acetate, methyl pentanoate, methyl formate, and ethyl acetate are all esters with low boiling points - my question is how are they derived from palm oil? As far as I can tell, the fatty acids in palm oil are all very long chain alkanes or alkenes, and unless you are doing some cleavages into smaller compounds, you won't be producing any low molecular weight esters.

[johnLeong]

I am sorry. I mistaken that methyl acetate cant produced from palm oil. I am trying to produce methyl ester from palm oil ranging from C8 to C14 with esterification process. By the way, the low temperature ester problem has been resolved. Low temperature ester from palm oil was methyl ester with C8 to C14.