Oleochemicals, manufacture

Gunstone, F. D. Hamilton, R. J. (Eds.) Oleochemical Manufacture arul Applications, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla., 2001. 

Knothe, G., and Dunn, R. O. 2001. Biofuels Derived from Vegetable Oils and Fats. In Oleochemical Manufacture and Applications (pp. 106-163). Sheffield Sheffield Acadamic. 

Fatty acids chemistry and processes have been summarized by Johnson and Fritz,190 and oleochemicals manufacture and use by Gunstone and Hamilton.191 Pathways for converting oils and fats into various oleochemicals are shown in Fig. 34.35.21,192... 

F. D. Gunstone and R. J. Hamilton, eds., Oleochemical Manufacture and Applications, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, U.K., 2001. 

Fatty Alcohols. Fatty alcohol is considered a basic oleochemical manufactured by high-pressure hydrogenation of fatty acids or fatty acid methyl esters. The majority of the fatty alcohol produced is further subjected to various processes, such as sulfation, ethoxylation, amination, phosphatization, sulfitation, and others. 

Franklin, F., et al., Cationic and amine-based surfactants, in Oleochemical Manufacture and Applications, Gunstone, F.D., Hamilton, R.J. (eds), chap. 2, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2001. 

The economics of extraction and purification of vegetable oils is a major factor that determines the utility of plant sources as feedstocks of oleochemical manufacture. Once purified, however, the vegetable oil can be processed on an industrial scale using well-known conventional chemical reactions. 

Biermann U, Ftirmeier S, Metzger JO. 2001. New Chemistry of Oils and Fats. In Oleochemical Manufacture and Applications (eds F.D. Gunstone, R.J. Hamilton). Sheffield Academic Press and CRC Press, ISBN 1-84127-219-1, pp. 266-299. 

A reexamination of so-called renewabdity has shown that advantages for oleochemicals are not sufftcientiy clear (115), especially because manufacture of surfactants ia the United States accounts for only 0.03% of aimual cmde oil consumption (62). On these bases, the primary determinants of surfactant choice will continue to be cost effectiveness and availability. The 1993 U.S. market has been estimated to be worth 3.7 x 10 (110). Approximately one-half was anionic surfactant ( 1.8 x 10 ) and one-third nonionic surfactant ( 1.2 x 10 ). The balance was made up by cationics ( 1.2 X 10 ) and amphoterics ( 600 x 10 ). The U.S. International Trade Commission (116) provides a minutely detailed breakdown of surfactant production. 

Castor is the only renewable vegetable oil resource (see Chemurgy) having a hydroxyl group stmcture and functionaHty that leads to diverse oleochemicals. In 1988, approximately 35,000 t/yr of castor oil were used to prepare raw materials for the manufacture of nylon-11. It is estimated that 40,000—45,000 t of... 

Alcohols are also widely produced from fats and oils, and in some cases one of the oldest techniques utilised in the manufacture of soap, fat splitting, is also used as part of the process. Vegetable oils as well as animal fats are all triglycerides and consequently a key step of the various technologies used in the alcohol manufacture involves the separation of glycerine. Oleochemical alcohols are produced using two... 

Sometimes the question asked is whether animal fat is absent from products such as cosmetics or from some other oleochemical product prepared from fats. This can include products such as emulsifiers. Where the product contains original triglyceride then this portion can be considered as described above, and the absence of cholesterol can be considered as good evidence that animal fats are absent. This, however, does not apply to triglycerides formed after saponification of fatty acids, followed by fractionation and recombination with glycerol. So-called fractionated coconut oil is manufactured by this process, and any similar product made from fatty acids from an animal source would not show the presence of any cholesterol. Similarly other oleochemicals formed from fatty acids derived from animal fats would also not contain cholesterol. In these cases it is often impossible to detect the presence of animal fat by testing for cholesterol. The only possibility in some cases might be to look at... 

The problem of the presence of pork fat derivatives in oleochemicals and products is similar to that already described with respect to animal oleochemicals in general. A summary of the status of food emulsifiers with respect to Jewish food laws is given by Hodd (1996). The author, however, presumably obtained his information from the manufacturers and not by testing the products. 

The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) is a nonprofit trade association representing manufacturers of household, industrial, and institutional cleaning products, their ingredients and finished packaging oleochemical producers and chemical distributors to the cleaning product industry. SDA members produce more than 90 percent of the cleaning products marketed in the U.S. 

Derivatives of fatty acid from coconut oil are feedstock for a number of diverse nonfood products. Coconut oU fatty acids and glycerol are released by hydrolysis or alcoholysis of the fat. The fatty acids or their methyl esters, which are subsequently fractionated, constimte the starting materials for the oleochemical industry. The byproduct, glycerol, is purified by vacuum distillation. The purified product is, among others, a component of pharmaceutical preparations, an important ingredient in toothpastes, a raw material in the manufacture of nitroglycerol, and the fluid in hydraulic jacks and shock absorbers. 

Palm oil is used in both edible and nonedible applications (Figure 19). Ninety percent of palm oil and its products are used for edible purposes. Currently palm oil is used in food preparation or food manufacture worldwide. The remaining 10% of palm oil and its products are used for nonedible applications, mainly in the soap industry and in the manufacUire of oleochemicals. 

Rapeseed has long been a source of cooking oil and has important industrial uses such as lubricants for high-temperature applications, especially those leading to environmental release of the lubricant antislip agents in plastics manufacturing fabric softeners and additional oleochemical applications. However, the emcic acid... 

The lauric oils are highly desirable materials in the oleochemical industry worldwide because of the importance of the lauric fraction especially in the manufacture of soaps and detergents (4). 

Coconut fatty acids and their various fractions, aside from being used directly, are converted further to other derivatives. Their range of application covers a broad spectrum in the oleochemical industry. As shown in Figure 1, fatty acids can undergo different processes in the manufacture of various oleochemical derivatives. Among the more common products and applications are the following ... 

Fatty Amines. Fatty amines are the most important nitrogen derivatives of fatty acids. They are produced by the reaction of fatty acids with ammonia and hydrogen. They are the bases for the manufacture of quaternary ammonium compounds used as fabric softeners and biocides. Fatty amine oxides are mild to the skin with good cleaning and foaming properties and find application as a shampoo ingredient. The above mentioned products are but some of the oleochemical derivatives from coconut fatty acids (5). 

Fats and oils are renewable products of nature. One can aptly call them oil from the sun where the sun s energy is biochemically converted to valuable oleochemicals via oleochemistry. Natural oleochemicals derived from natural fats and oils by splitting or tran -esterification, such as fatty acids, methyl esters, and glycerine are termed basic oleochemicals. Fatty alcohols and fatty amines may also be counted as basic oleochemicals, because of their importance in the manufacture of derivatives (8). Further processing of the basic oleochemicals by different routes, such as esterification, ethoxylation, sulfation, and amidation (Figure 1), produces other oleochemical products, which are termed oleochemical derivatives. 

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