Optimized Coconut Oil-Derived Methyl Ester Sulfonate with Enhanced Detergency and Biodegradability for Liquid Detergent Applications
DOI:
10.29303/jppipa.v12i6.8474Published:
2026-06-30Downloads
Abstract
Methyl ester sulfonate (MES) is a renewable anionic surfactant with potential applications in sustainable liquid detergent systems. This study developed an integrated feedstock–process–structure–performance–degradation framework for the experimental production of coconut-oil-derived MES. Coconut oil quality and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) reproducibility were evaluated prior to MES synthesis optimization using a three-factor Box–Behnken design. The effects of sulfonating-agent-to-FAME molar ratio, reaction temperature, and aging time were evaluated based on active MES content, residual FAME, disalt content, color, critical micelle concentration, surface tension, detergency, biodegradation, and liquid-detergent performance. Multiresponse optimization identified the optimum sulfonation condition at a sulfonating-agent-to-FAME molar ratio of 1.180, reaction temperature of 81.2 °C, and aging time of 67 min, with an overall desirability value of 0.709. Five independent experimental validation batches produced 85.8% active MES, 5.2% residual FAME, 5.7% disalt, a critical micelle concentration of 0.81 mM, minimum surface tension of 31.3 mN m⁻¹, detergency of 77.2%, and 82.3% biodegradation after 28 days. The optimized MES demonstrated competitive cleaning performance toward lipid-based soils under hard-water conditions and showed improved interfacial and environmental properties compared with the over-sulfonated product. In a 12% active liquid-detergent formulation, the all-MES system achieved 80.4% detergency, comparable with the sodium laureth sulfate reference formulation (81.2%), while the MES/SLES blend achieved 82.5% detergency. Excessive sulfonation reduced product quality by increasing secondary-product formation, decreasing interfacial efficiency, and negatively affecting biodegradation performance. Overall, balanced sulfonation optimization is essential for achieving MES with desirable chemical quality, application performance, and environmental compatibility. This framework provides a basis for further pilot-scale development of coconut-oil-derived MES as a renewable surfactant for liquid detergent applications
Keywords:
Anionic surfactant Biodegradability Coconut oil Detergency Liquid detergent Methyl ester sulfonate Response surface methodologyReferences
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