A method to control terpineol production from turpentine by acid catalysts mixing

Tirto Prakoso; Ilham Ardiyanto Putra; Lienda Handojo; Tatang Hernas Soerawidjaja; Haryo Pandu Winoto; Antonius Indarto

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04984

A method to control terpineol production from turpentine by acid catalysts mixing

Heliyon. 2020 Oct 8;6(10):e04984. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04984. eCollection 2020 Oct.

Authors

Tirto Prakoso^{1

2}, Ilham Ardiyanto Putra¹, Lienda Handojo¹, Tatang Hernas Soerawidjaja^{1

2}, Haryo Pandu Winoto¹, Antonius Indarto^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia.
² Department of Bioenergy Engineering and Chemurgy, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Sumedang, Indonesia.

Abstract

Terpineol, a promising valorisation product of pine industry, is widely used as an active ingredient for disinfectant soap, cleansers, perfumes, and pharmaceutical purposes. Synthesis of terpineol is generally carried out by separation of α-pinene compounds from crude turpentine through fractionation and then hydrated (addition of water) with the help of acid catalysts. However, direct turpentine hydration without pre-fractionation process can be more beneficial from economic and process point of views. This study aims to investigate the effect of both single and mixed/combined catalysts towards terpineol yield. Combined strong and weak acid catalysts were required to obtain high feed conversion and terpineol yield. The selectivity of terpineol is then correlated to the solubility of a weak/organic acid. In this study, the highest yield of terpineol was 54.0 ± 8.2%-w/w using combination of formic acid and sulphuric acid.

Keywords: Acid catalysts; Catalyst; Chemical engineering; Chemical reaction engineering; Chemical synthesis; Hydration reaction; Industrial chemistry; Natural product chemistry; Terpineol; Turpentine.