Detergent range, fatty alcohols process

Only a few natural sources of fatty alcohols were known at this time. Production on a technical scale could be first realized by the reduction of methyl or butyl esters of fatty acids with metallic sodium after the Bouveault-Blanc process. Nearly simultaneously, the high-pressure hydrogenation of fatty acids to the resulting alcohols was developed by Schrauth. Hence, fatty alcohols were soon available on the market in a price range that made it possible to produce fatty alcohol sulfates for use in detergents. 

FAME may become in the future a possible organic feedstock to be sulphonated to Fatty Acid Methyl Ester Sulphonate (FAMES). This feedstock is naturally renewable as it is produced from oils/fats or fatty acids. There are several possible process routes for the manufacture of FAME. Transesterification of fat triglycerides is the predominant method for manufacture of mixed fatty acid methyl esters, and direct esterification of fatty acids (FA) is practised if very selective cuts of product, in general as an intermediate detergent range alcohol, are desired. Methyl cocoate is a mobile, oily liquid above 25"C with a yellow tint and a characteristic fatty acid pungent odour. FAME sulphonation to FAMES is technically possible but hardly applied up to now (1990). 

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