Cognis IP Management Gmbh

Basf Se Corporation

Thomas Wolf

Rolf Kawa

Bernhard Gutsche

Peter Kempers

Ulrich Schörken

Setsuo Sato

Sabine Both

Ulrich Schoerken

Jörg Schwarzer

Wanderson Bueno De Almeida

Alexssander Shigueru Araujo

Henrique Jorge Sousa Sales

Hercules Peloggia

Pablo Silva Bizzarri

Benoit Moreau

Ulrich Schorken

The present invention relates to a process for preparing esters from fatty alcohols, in which fatty alcohols and fatty acids are reacted in the presence of an enzyme at a temperature in the range of 30 to 50&#xb0; C., the water which forms is removed and the reaction is completed under reduced pressure at a temperature of 50 to 80&#xb0; C.

Ester synthesis

The disclosed invention refers to a process for obtaining fatty acid alkyl esters, rosin acids and sterols from crude tall oil (CTO), which is characterized by the following steps: (a) reacting the free fatty acids present in the CTO with lower alcohols; (b) esterifying the sterols in the CTO with boric acid or transesterifying the sterols with a catalyst; (c) separating the fatty acid lower alkyl esters and rosin acids from the remaining sterol borate esters or sterol esters of fatty acids to produce a stream of sterol esters; (d) separating the fatty acid alkyl esters from the rosin acids to produce a first stream of fatty acid alky esters and a second stream of rosin acids; and (e) converting the sterol esters into the free sterols to produce a third stream of free sterols.

Process for obtaining fatty acid alkyl esters, rosin acids and sterols from crude tall oil

The invention relates to a process for production of fatty acids directly from soapstock generated in the alkali refining process including the steps of (a) adding a lipase directly to the alkaline soapstock to facilitate hydrolysis of glycerides without prior neutralization, (b) neutralizing and splitting the soaps with strong acids, and (c) separating the fatty acid phase from the aqueous phase by settling and/or centrifugation. A second embodiment is a process in which the soapstock is first neutralized and split with strong acids, followed by adding a lipase to facilitate glyceride hydrolysis, and separating the fatty acid phase. The fatty acids so obtained can be esterified with C1-C6 alcohols using a lipase that is selective for fatty acids and does not transesterify the sterolesters, and the fatty acid esters and sterolesters are separated by distillation. The sterolesters are useful as supplements for food, as pharmaceutical agents for lowering cholesterol and as biofuel and biodiesel.

Process for production of fatty acids, fatty acid esters and sterolesters from soapstock

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Haan, Germany

Thomas Wolf