Synthesis and Tribological Properties of Guerbet alcohol from a
mixture of C12-C14 fatty alcohol: Modeling using RSM, ANN
Abstract
Guerbet alcohol (GA) is β-branched primary alcohol having excellent
physiochemical properties like lower pour point (PP) and higher
kinematic viscosity (KV) in comparison to linear alcohol. Although
different aspects of the synthesis of GA, such as methods of synthesis,
catalytic systems, and reaction conditions, have been studied, but
statistical modeling and optimization of the synthesis of GA have not
been carried out. In the present work, the optimization of the synthesis
of GA using a mixture of lauryl and myristyl alcohol was carried out
with the aid of response surface methodology (RSM) considering the
conversion of the reaction, PP and KV at 40˚C & 100˚C as dependent
variables. The optimal reaction conditions were temperature, pressure,
and time of 220˚C, 300 mbar, and 10 hours respectively. The optimum
conversion was 99.141%, including dimer yield of 81.755%, PP of -3˚C,
KV at 40˚C & 100˚C of 34.12 cSt & 7.22 cSt, respectively. The results
obtained by the RSM were then authenticated, applying artificial neural
networks (ANN) generated with the help of MATLAB. The ability of the
generated model to predict the response variables was validated by less
than 5% error for almost all the models, confirming the statistical
significance. Also, the tribological potential for linear Ginol-12,14
(FA) and synthesized branched GA as lubricant additive was evaluated by
determining its physiochemical, thermal and tribological properties.