In organic chemistry, transesterification is the process of exchanging the alcohol group of an ester compound with another alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base.

Acids can catalyse the reaction by donating a proton to the carbonyl group, thus making it more reactive, while bases can catalyse the reaction by removing a proton from the alcohol, thus making it more reactive.

Transesterification is used in the synthesis of polyester, in which diesters undergo transesterification with diols to form macromolecules. For example, dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol react to form polyethylene terephthalate and methanol, which is evaporated to drive the reaction forward. The reverse reaction (methanolysis) is also an example of transesterification, and has been used to recycle polyesters into individual monomers (see plastic recycling).

History of biolipid transesterification

One of the first uses of transesterified vegetable oil (biodiesel) was to power heavy-duty vehicles in South Africa before World War II. The name "biodiesel" has been given to transesterified vegetable oil to describe its use as a diesel fuel.

It was patented in the U.S. in the 1940s by Colgate, though biolipid transesterification may have been discovered much earlier. In the 1940s, researchers were looking for a method to more readily produce glycerine, which was used to produce explosives for World War II. Many of the methods used today by producers and homebrewers have their origin in the original 1940s research.

Biolipid transesterification has also been recently shown by Japanese researchers to be possible using a super-critical methanol methodology, whereby high temperature, high-pressure vessels are used to physically catalyze the biolipid/methanol reaction into fatty-acid methyl esters.

See also

• Biodiesel production
• Interesterified fat

References