Reaction product with n-butanol of high-boiling stream resulting from the hydroxylation, oxidative cleavage and hydrolysis of vegetable oil saturated and unsaturated C16-C22 triglycerides.

Endpoint summary

Additional information

FAV-ES is a UVCB substance consisting of >30 constituents. The constituents typically are di- and triglycerides with fatty acid and di-acid side chains. The di-acid side chains are further esterified with n-butanol. The ester group therefore is the main recurring chemical functionality in these constituents.

Abiotic degradation / hydrolysis of the ester function is not expected to occur under environmentally relevant conditions. The biodegradation of FAV-ES is determined experimentally. FAV-ES was found to reach a degradation of 55.7% after 28 days, based on CO₂ production (ultimate degradation). In order to further evaluate the outcome of the biodegradation test on FAV-ES, the biodegradability of each individual constituent in the UVCB is estimated using EpiSuite. The QSAR results demonstrate that all but one of the FAV-ES constituents are predicted to be readily biodegradable. The difference between the outcome of the QSAR model (all but one constituents readily biodegradable) and the actual biodegradation test (degradation observed, but not readily biodegradable), is related to the water solubility of the FAV-ES constituents. According to the QSAR results, the vast majority of the FAV-ES constituents has a water solubility below 10 µg/L. As a consequence, due to the relatively high substance loading in ready biodegradation tests, part of the test substance will not be dissolved, which slows down the degradation rate.

 

The estimated log Koc values show that 32 of the 34 identified constituents of FAV-ES have a log Koc value > 4. These relatively high Log Koc values indicate that the constituents of FAV-ES will have the tendency to distribute towards the soil and/or sediment compartment upon release into the environment.

 

The EpiSuite QSAR was used in order to gain information on the bioaccumulative potential of each of the identified constituents. The QSAR results show that 31 of the 34 constituents identified in FAV-ES have estimated BCF values < 2000. The remaining 3 constituents (F1, C4 and C5) have estimated BCF values of 2460, 2052 and 2802, respectively. Even though these estimated BCF values > 2000 indicate a potential for bioaccumulation, it has to be taken into account that the ester functions present in all FAV-ES constituents will be subject to hydrolysis under the influence of esterase and lipase enzymes present in the organism. As a consequence, an accumulation of the FAV-ES constituents in living organisms is unlikely. Therefore, none of the FAV-ES constituents are considered to have bioaccumulative potential.