Response Surface-Optimized Isolation of Essential Fatty Acids via Castor Oil Dehydration

The reaction conditions optimization, including the temperature of the reaction, amount of catalyst required, and reaction time for the linoleic acids (LAs) and conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) production by catalytic dehydration of cas-tor oil via saponification was investigated by response surface methodology (RSM). It was confirmed that all three parame-ters (temperature, time, and amount of catalyst) were influential factors in isolating LAs and CLAs. When the temperature was increased, the iodine value increased, and the reaction time and catalyst amount increased. The optimal reaction conditions were: 240 ?, 2.2 h reaction time, and 7 wt% catalyst amount. The maximum iodine value reached 156.25 with 91.69% con-version to the essential fatty acids.