How to reduce the hydrolysis of fatty acid methyl esters under strongly alkaline conditions?
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One of our approaches involves using fatty acid methyl esters as raw materials, carrying out the reaction under strongly alkaline conditions with a pH of around 12, over a reaction time of approximately 5 hours. During the reaction, it was observed that the pH value often dropped, which led us to suspect that the fatty acid methyl esters were hydrolyzing to form fatty acids and methanol, thereby having an adverse effect on the reaction. May I ask how to reduce or avoid the hydrolysis of fatty acid methyl esters during the reaction process? Please help analyze and give some advice; thank you!
The hydrolysis of fats generally occurs under acidic conditions. You can conduct a control experiment by adding potassium hydroxide to fatty acid methyl esters to see if any reaction takes place. If hydrolysis does indeed occur, in my opinion, a certain amount of methanol should be added to inhibit it, provided that no new side reactions are induced.
Without water, hydrolysis won’t occur! Also, is ph12 a strong base? ? ? ? ! ! ! ! Bro, what catalyst are you guys using? Could it be an enzyme? Does it take up to 5 hours? If you use plain KOH, then 5 hours are completely unnecessary; 30–60 minutes is sufficient. Even God cannot guarantee that the fats will not undergo saponification in 5 hours.