| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of recovering and reusing alcohol used in excess when higher unsaturated fatty acid alkyl ester is produced from oil containing higher unsaturated fatty acid.SOLUTION: A method of producing fatty acid alkyl ester is provided which includes the following steps (a) to (e). (a) a step of reacting oil and fat with lower alcohol in the presence of catalyst to produce fatty acid alkyl ester, (b) a step of separating unreacted lower alcohol from a reaction liquid, (c) a step of reducing the moisture content included in the unreacted lower alcohol to 0.05 mass% or less by a zeolite adsorption treatment, (d) a step of reusing the unreacted lower alcohol from which water has been removed as a whole or a part of the raw material for subsequent (a) reactions, and (e) a step of reactivating zeolite used in the (c) adsorption treatment zeolite by a heating treatment and reusing the reactivated zeolite. |
