Fractional distillation

Abstract

AbstractWhile practically all the fatty acids produced in the fatty acid industry are distilled products, these materials are all, at least to some degree, fractionated fatty acids. Rarely indeed are today's fatty acids suited for any of the many applications to which they are put without the quality and homolog distribution improvements which only fractional distillation can guarantee. Thus, this separation is of vital importance within the fatty acid and derivative industries. Fractional distillation is industrially a practical separative method for: (a) 16:0 and 18:0 fatty acids, such as those derived from hydrogenated fats and oils like tallow, soybean, cottonseed soapstocks, palm oil and others; (b) 18:0, 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 fatty acids from hydrogenated fish oils or high erucic rapeseed oil; and (c) 8:0, 10:0, 12:0, and 14:0 fatty acids from the hydrogenated fatty acids from the lauric oils group (coconut, palm kernel, babassu, etc.). While theoretically possible under idealized conditions in the laboratory, it is not practical to separate palmitic, oleic, heptadecanoic, and stearic acids by means of fractional distillation