Sucrose monolaurate production from lauric acid through a two-stage process

This work represented the first step toward pioneering the use of a two-stage process for sucrose monolaurate (sucrose ester) production from lauric acid with high productivity and selectivity. In the first stage, lauric acid was firstly converted into methyl laurate via esterification, followed by the transesterification of methyl laurate into sucrose ester in the second stage. In this research, the first stage of process was primarily focused and thoroughly evaluated. Methyl laurate was continuously produced via lauric acid and methanol in a mini fixed-bed reactor. Amberlyst 15 was used as a catalyst. The operating variables were thoroughly investigated and optimized. The optimal condition to achieve 98 wt% yield (99% purity) was as follows: temperature of 110 °C, residence time of 5 min, and feed concentration of 94 g/L. High catalytic stability was observed over the time-on-stream of 30 h. This process provided good productivity compared to the other processes. The methyl laurate obtained from the first stage could be used as a raw material for the second stage to produce sucrose ester, which was demonstrated experimentally. The high selectivity of 95% of sucrose monolaurate was obtained. The continuous production of sucrose ester from lauric acid could be achieved.