Fats and oils sources

Figure 6.2. Prices for fats and oils. Source Chemical Economics Elandbook (SRI Consulting), November 2005.

Includes small quantities of other fats and oils. Source Bureau of the Census. 

Use Antioxidant for fats and oils, source of vitamin C, stabilizer, emulsifier. 

Gunstone, F.D., 2004. The Chemistry of Fats and Oils—Sources, Composition, Properties and Uses. CRC Press, New York, USA. 

Hydrocarbons are divided into two mam classes aliphatic and aromatic This classifi cation dates from the nineteenth century when organic chemistry was devoted almost entirely to the study of materials from natural sources and terms were coined that reflected a substance s origin Two sources were fats and oils and the word aliphatic was derived from the Greek word aleiphar meaning ( fat ) Aromatic hydrocarbons irre spective of their own odor were typically obtained by chemical treatment of pleasant smelling plant extracts... 

Fats and oils may be synthesized in enantiomerically pure forms in the laboratory (30) or derived from vegetable sources (mainly from nuts, beans, and seeds), animal depot fats, fish, or marine mammals. Oils obtained from other sources differ markedly in their fatty acid distribution. Table 2 shows compositions for a wide variety of oils. One variation in composition is the chain length of the fatty acid. Butterfat, for example, has a fairly high concentration of short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Oils derived from cuphea are also a rich source of capric acid which is considered to be medium in chain length (32). Palm kernel and coconut oils are known as lauric oils because of their high content of C-12 saturated fatty acid (lauric acid). Rapeseed oil, on the other hand, has a fairly high concentration of long-chain (C-20 and C-22) fatty acids. 

Fatty amines are nitrogen derivatives of fatty acids, olefins, or alcohols prepared from natural sources, fats and oils, or petrochemical raw materials. Commercially available fatty amines consist of either a mixture of carbon chains or a specific chain length from C The amines are classified as... 

The major source of raw materials for the preparation of fatty amines is fats and oils such as tallow, and coconut, soya, and palm oils. Ethyl Corporation uses petrochemicals as raw materials to prepare alkyl dimethyl and dialkylmethyl tertiary fatty amines, trademarked as AE)MA and DAMA products, which can be suppHed as single-carbon chain-length cuts or custom blends (13). Commercially available high purity fatty amines are Hsted in Table 3. Cost of the amines can vary owing to supply of raw materials. 

Synthesis and Manufacture of Amines. The chemical and busiaess segments of amines (qv) and quaternaries are so closely linked that it is difficult to consider these separately. The majority of commercially produced amines origiaate from three amine raw materials natural fats and oils, a-olefins, and fatty alcohols. Most large commercial manufacturers of quaternary ammonium compounds are fully back-iategrated to at least one of these three sources of amines. The amines are then used to produce a wide array of commercially available quaternary ammonium compounds. Some iadividual quaternary ammonium compounds can be produced by more than one synthetic route. 

Although soaps have many physical properties in common with the broader class of surfactants, they also have several distinguishing factors. First, soaps are most often derived direcdy from natural sources of fats and oils (see Fats and fatty oils). Fats and oils are triglycerides, ie, molecules comprised of a glycerol backbone and three ester-linked fatty oils. Other synthetic surfactants may use fats and oils or petrochemicals as initial building blocks, but generally require additional chemical manipulations such as sulfonation, esterification, sulfation, and amidation. 

Carboxylate soaps are most commonly formed through either direct or indirect reaction of aqueous caustic soda, ie, alkaH earth metal hydroxides such as NaOH, with fats and oils from natural sources, ie, triglycerides. Fats and oils are typically composed of both saturated and unsaturated fatty acid molecules containing between 8 and 20 carbons randomly linked through ester bonds to a glycerol [56-81-5] backbone. Overall, the reaction of caustic with triglyceride yields glycerol (qv) and soap in a reaction known as saponification. The reaction is shown in equation 1. 

The quaHty, ie, level of impurities, of the fats and oils used in the manufacture of soap is important in the production of commercial products. Fats and oils are isolated from various animal and vegetable sources and contain different intrinsic impurities. These impurities may include hydrolysis products of the triglyceride, eg, fatty acid and mono/diglycerides proteinaceous materials and particulate dirt, eg, bone meal and various vitamins, pigments, phosphatides, and sterols, ie, cholesterol and tocopherol as weU as less descript odor and color bodies. These impurities affect the physical properties such as odor and color of the fats and oils and can cause additional degradation of the fats and oils upon storage. For commercial soaps, it is desirable to keep these impurities at the absolute minimum for both storage stabiHty and finished product quaHty considerations. 

Fats and oils are treated as commodities in the open market and are purchased in bulk. As commodities, their prices fluctuate with supply and demand. Furthermore, fats and oils come in different grades that reflect different levels of processing and have industry-standardized specifications such as the American Fats and Oil Association. In the manufacture of soap in the United States, the source of animal fats is domestic whereas the vegetable oils are frequently obtained from Southeast Asia, primarily Malaysia and the Philippines. 

Other Sources. The four oils named above are the most commonly used fats and oils in the soap-making industry in the United States, but other sources are also utilized throughout the world, including lard or hog fat. Babassu oil, rice brand oil, and soybean oil. 

Carboxylic acids having 6—24 carbon atoms are commonly known as fatty acids. Shorter-chain acids, such as formic, acetic, and propionic acid, are not classified as fatty acids and are produced synthetically from petroleum sources (see Acetic acid Formic acid and derivatives Oxo process). Fatty acids are produced primarily from natural fats and oils through a series of unit operations. Clay bleaching and acid washing are sometimes also included with the above operations in the manufacture of fatty acids for the removal of impurities prior to subsequent processing. 

The composition of common fats and oils are found in Table 1. The most predominant feedstocks for the manufacture of fatty acids are tallow and grease, coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and cottonseed oil. Another large source of fatty acids comes from the distillation of cmde tall oil obtained as a by-product from the Kraft pulping process (see Tall oil Carboxylic acids, fatty acids from tall oil). 

SOURCE From Patterson, Hydrogenation of Fats and Oils, Applied Science Pubbsbers, 1983. 

Myristic acid occurs as a glyceride in many vegetable fats and oils, in particular in coconut oil,i its isolation from which involves separation from homologs by fractional distillation of the acids or their esters. The trimyristin obtained from nutmegs 2 (p. 100) or from the seeds of Virola venezuelensis forms the most suitable source. 

The catalytic oxidation of long-chain paraffins (C18-C30) over manganese salts produces a mixture of fatty acids with different chain lengths. Temperature and pressure ranges of 105-120°C and 15-60 atmospheres are used. About 60 wt% yield of fatty acids in the range of C12-C14 is obtained. These acids are used for making soaps. The main source for fatty acids for soap manufacture, however, is the hydrolysis of fats and oils (a nonpetroleum source). Oxidation of paraffins to fatty acids may be illustrated as ... 

Alcohols obtained from fats and oils contain an even number of carbon atoms and they are completely linear. Alcohols obtained from petrochemical sources can be linear or branched, depending on the manufacturing process, and can also have even or odd numbers of carbon atoms. In many practical applications the small differences observed in the behavior of sulfated alcohols or indeed sulfated alcohol ethoxylates from either source is of no significance and the choice is made on economic grounds. 

Compared with the fatty alcohol sulfates, which are also oleochemically produced anionic surfactants, the ester sulfonates have the advantage that their raw materials are on a low and therefore cost-effective level of fat refinement. The ester sulfonates are produced directly from the fatty acid esters by sulfona-tion, whereas the fatty alcohols, which are the source materials of the fatty alcohol sulfates, have to be formed by the catalytic high-pressure hydrogenation of fatty acids esters [9]. The fatty acid esters are obtained directly from the fats and oils by transesterification of the triglycerides with alcohols [10]. 

There is a much wider choice of hydrophobes. Most are based on substantially linear long-chain alkanes, either saturated or unsaturated. These were originally obtained from naturally occurring fats and oils such as castor, fish, olive, sperm, coconut and tallow oils, but these sources were later superseded by petroleum products which at that time were cheaper. More recently, not only has the price of crude oil escalated, but there has also been a growing... 

The selection of the most suitable antioxidant depends on the character of food and the targets which should be attained. Naturally occuring fats and oils contain indigenous antioxidants that protect the unsaturated lipids from free-radical destruction in their native vegetable and animal sources. On the other hand, fats and oils exist in a commingled fashion with reactive substances which cause their rapid decomposition. Intensity of oxidative alterations is also influenced by the shelf-life of products and storage conditions. All these facts should be considered when deciding whether any and if so what antioxidant will be used. 

In Figure 15-1, the Ri, R , and R3 are carbon chain lengths ranging from C4—C22 or more, though in these fats, Cn-C 7 predomiriate. Batches of triglycerides from various sources have their own random distribution of fatty acid chain lengths, but from the same fats and oils the distributions are fairly consistent. 

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