Jatropha Oil as a Substituent for Palm Oil in Biobased Polyurethane

Polyurethanes (PUs) are unique polymers that can be tailored to suit certain applications and are increasingly used in many industrial fields. Petrochemicals are still used as the main compound to synthesize PUs. Today, environmental concerns arise in the research and technology innovations in developing PUs, especially from vegetable polyols which are having an upsurge. These are driven by the uncertainty and fluctuations of petroleum crude oil price and availability. Jatropha has become a promising substituent to palm oil so as to reduce the competition of food and nonfood in utilizing this natural resource. Apart from that, jatropha will solve the problem related to the European banning of palm oil. Herein, we review the literature on the synthesis of PUs using different vegetable oils and compare it with jatropha oil and its nanocomposites reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals. Given the potential of vegetable oil PUs in many industrial applications, we expect that they will increase commercial interest and scientific research to bring these materials to the market soon.

Petroleum Crude Oil

Petroleum crude oil is the main energy source for making transportation fuel, providing about 90% of the US gasoline and most of the diesel and jet fuel. It comes in many different varieties, with different densities and sulfur contents. Worldwide there are about 100 million barrels consumed each day, with the United States accounting for 20% of this consumption. Crude oil is supported by an immense infrastructure, which will make it difficult for another energy type to displace it as a transportation fuel. Using the United States as an example, there are about 135 refineries with an operating capacity of nearly 19 million barrels per day. To deliver oil to these refineries there are about 55,000 miles of pipelines, and to deliver products from the refinery to the approximately 150,000 filling stations there are another 95,000 miles of pipelines. Because of this infrastructure, gasoline and diesel are widely available for use in vehicles of all sizes.

Synthesis and Application of New Amphiphilic Asphaltene Ionic Liquid Polymers to Demulsify Arabic Heavy Petroleum Crude Oil Emulsions

Asphaltenes are heavy petroleum crude oil components which limit the production of petroleum crude oil due to their aggregation and their stabilization for all petroleum crude oil water emulsions. The present study aimed to modify the chemical structures of isolated asphaltenes by converting them into amphiphilic polymers containing ionic liquid moieties (PILs) to demulsify the emulsion and replace the asphaltene layers surrounding the oil or water droplets in petroleum crude oil emulsions. The literature survey indicated that no modification occurred to produce the PILs from the asphaltenes. In this respect, the asphaltenes were modified via oxidation of the lower aliphatic chain through carboxylation followed by conversion to asphaltene acid chloride that reacted with ethoxylated N-alkyl pyridinium derivatives. Moreover, the carboxylation of asphaltenes was carried out through the Diels–Alder reaction with maleic anhydride that was linked with ethoxylated N-alkyl pyridinium derivatives to produce amphiphilic asphaltene PILs. The produced PILs from asphaltenes acid chloride and maleic anhydride were designated as AIL and AIL-2. The chemical structure and thermal stability of the polymeric asphaltene ionic liquids were evaluated. The modified structure of asphaltenes AIL and AIL-2 exhibited different thermal characteristics involving glass transition temperatures (Tg) at −68 °C and −45 °C, respectively. The new asphaltenes ionic liquids were adsorbed at the asphaltenes surfaces to demulsify the heavy petroleum crude emulsions. The demulsification data indicated that the mixing of AIL and AIL-2 100 at different ratios with ethoxylated N-alkyl pyridinium were demulsified with 100% of the water from different compositions of O:W emulsions 50:50, 90:10, and 10:90. The demulsification times for the 50:50, 90:10, and 10:90 O:W emulsions were 120, 120, and 60 min, respectively. The interaction of the PILs with asphaltene and mechanism of demulsification was also investigated.