Design fatty-ester synthesis

On the basis of the recent clarification of the function of AGP in fatty acid synthesis, it seems likely that the AGP esters of these intermediate chain length hydroxy acids and unsaturated acids, rather than the CoA esters, are the true intermediates in long-chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acid synthesis. In fact, recently Wakil and co-workers (Wakil et al, 1964 Pugh et al, 1966) have been able to obtain three protein fractions (designated En, Em, and Eiv) involved in the synthesis of palmitic and 11,12-octadecenoic acids. In the presence of acetyl CoA, malonyl CoA, ACP, and TPNH, Eu and Em produced palmitic acid as the major product, while En plus Eiv produced mainly 11,12-octadecenoic acid. Incubation with only En produced a mixture of Cio, Ci2, and C14 3-hydroxyacyl ACP derivatives. Furthermore, the isolated P-hydroxyacyl ACP derivatives could serve as precursors of... 

The slow water removal is obvious within the synthesis of, for example, myristyl myristate determining the total reaction time. In a stirred-tank reactor it takes 24 h to reach a conversion of 99.6% and in a fixed-bed reactor 14 h. Therefore, a new synthesis platform (Figure 4.11) which also enables conversion of highly viscous polyols and fatty acids from renewable resources to ester-based surfactants was designed. It is used by Evonik on a pilot scale, outperforming conventional methods, such as stirred-tank or fixed-bed reactors. In contrast to the setups introduced before, conversion of >99.6% is already obtained after 5.5 h in the bubble column reactor [44-47]. 

Tarzia, G., Duranti, A., Tontini, A., Piersanti, G., Mor, M., Rivara, S., Plazzi, P. V., Park, C., Kathuria, S., and Piomelli, D. (2003). Design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationships of alkylcarbamic acid aryl esters, a new class of fatty acidamide hydrolase inhibitors. J. Med. Chem. 

S, Piomelli D (2003) Design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationships of alkylcar-bamic acid aryl esters, a new class of fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitors. J Med Chem 46 2352-2360... 

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