Process for producing fatty alcohols from fatty acids

Abstract

A process for the production of fatty alcohol or alcohols comprising: subjecting a fatty acid or fatty acid mixture to esterification with a lower alkanol in an esterification reactor maintained under esterification conditions to form a stream comprising the corresponding lower alkyl ester or esters; vaporising the stream from step (a); subjecting the vaporised stream of step (b) to hydrogenation in a first hydrogenation zone operated under hydrogenation conditions to form a stream comprising fatty alcohol or alcohols and an amount of unconverted lower alkyl ester or esters; subjecting the stream from step (c) to transesterification in a wax ester reactor maintained under transesterification conditions in the presence of a solid transesterification catalyst thereby to convert at least a portion of the lower alkyl fatty acid ester by ester interchange with a corresponding amount of fatty alcohol or alcohols to lower alkanol and to a wax ester or esters derived from a fatty alcohol and a fatty acid; separating fatty alcohol or fatty alcohols and wax ester or wax esters of step (d) by distillation to yield a fatty alcohol or alcohols product and a stream comprising wax ester or esters; passing said stream comprising wax ester or esters to a second hydrogenation zone operating under conditions to effect hydrogenation in the liquid phase to revert the wax ester or esters to fatty alcohol or alcohols; and returning the fatty alcohol or alcohols to the separation step (e).

Description

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AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The technical effect of this new process described in this patents allows for more efficient utilization of resources while reducing emissions associated with producing alkane compounds during processing. It also prevents formation of unwanted materials such as metals when breaking down certain chemicals into simpler molecules like alcohols due to their low melting point compared to other organic solvents used in previous methods. Additionally, it suggests replacing expensive platinum group elements (Pt) instead of just one element per million ppmw levels, which further reduces costs over traditional processes.

Problems solved by technology

Technologies aim to solve various technical issues associated with existing processes involving producing unsaturates containing α-,β-unsatured carboxallic acid/alkanoid mixtures through condensations between different molecules obtained during chemical synthesis procedures.

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