Industrial oleochemicals polyols

Fatty acids and fatty acid methyl esters are probably the most important basic oleochemicals in the oleochemical industry. Fatty acids are used as starting materials for soaps, medium-chain triglycerides, polyol esters, alkanolamides, and many more. 

Vegetable oils and fats are very important resources for polyols. The vegetable oils such as soybean oil, castor oil, sunflower oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, linseed oil and so on, with a worldwide production of around 110 milions t/year (in 2000) [10,12, 21, 22], are used mainly in human food applications (76%), in technical applications (19.5% only 7.5% is converted into soaps, and 10.5% is used in oleochemical industry) and 1.5% in other applications. Soybean oil is the most important vegetable oil produced worldwide, representing 25% from the total oils and fats, the second place being occupied by palm oil (18%) [10, 12, 21, 22, 24-26]. 

Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatly acid found in high concentrations in vegetable oils, presenting a broad number of applications in many industrial areas, such as food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, oleochemical and biodiesel industries. Due to the lipophilicity, unsaturation and acidic characteristics that this compound presents, oleic acid can be effectively ttsed in esterification and acidolysis, among other reactions. Recent studies have used oleic acid as an efficient substrate for synthesis of trimethylolpropane esters by esterification using lipase from Candida Antarctica, since this polyol ester is widely applied in hydraulic... 

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