BACKGROUND: The epoxidation of vegetable oils has been a subject of interest for many years; epoxidized oils are frequently used as plasticizers and as renewable materials for the manufacture of alcohols, glycols and many other complex compounds with excellent antioxidant and antifriction properties. In this work the epoxidation process of rapeseed oil (RO) with peracetic acid generated in situ by the reaction of 30 wt% hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid has been studied. Optimization studies were performed by application of a statistical experimental design method utilizing a rotatable-uniform design. RESULTS: The significant parameters for the RO epoxidation process were established as temperature, molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide to rapeseed oil, molar ratio of acetic acid to rapeseed oil and reaction time. The process description was based on five response functions: iodine number, epoxy number, conversion, yield and selectivity. The highest values of all functions with the exception of selectivity were achieved for the same values of parameters: temperature 65 degrees C, molar ratio of hydrogen peroxide to RO 11.1: 1 mol mol(-1), molar ratio of acetic acid to RO 1.89: 1 mol mol(-1) and reaction time 6 h. CONCLUSION: In summary, these optimum parameters allow one to obtain epoxidized rapeseed oil with a yield of 66.2 mol% at an oil conversion of 91.0 mol % in mild and relatively safe conditions. The epoxy number of the product was 0.207 mol per 100 g, whereas the iodine number was 0.027 mol per 100g. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry