Date of Degree

2010

Document Type

thesis

Degree Name

MS (Master of Science)

Department

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

First Advisor

David G. Rethwisch

Abstract

Vegetable oils are a cheap and abundant chemical feedstock which can be readily broken down into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by transesterification using methanol and a base catalyst. These FAMEs contain reactive unsaturated double bonds which can be targeted for modification. In this study, enzymatic and chemical modifications of the unsaturated double bonds of FAMEs are explored with the goal of producing higher value products. Specifically the enzymatic modification of methyl linoleate using soybean lipoxygenase and the chemical modification of methyl oleate using hypobromantion are studied.

Pages

vii, 52

Bibliography

51-52

Copyright

Copyright 2010 Matthew John Scholten



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