Reducing acid number of fats or oils, comprises feeding the fats or oils and a homogeneous esterification catalyst in a counter flow esterification column and downwardly delivering fats or foils to reduce excess water and alcohol

摘要

Reducing the acid number of fats and/or oils, which exhibit an acid number of 1-250, to an acid number of less than 1, comprises feeding the fats and/or oils and a homogeneous esterification catalyst in a counter flow esterification column, where the fats and/or oils exhibit a temperature of 180-300[deg] C, during which the column is supplied from bottom with an alcohol, where the alcohol is evaporated in the column, and downwardly delivering the fats and/or oils over the built-in components provided in the column, during which the excess alcohol are reduced as exhaust vapor. Reducing the acid number of fats and/or oils, which exhibit an acid number of 1-250, to an acid number of less than 1, comprises feeding the fats and/or oils and a homogeneous esterification catalyst in the upper part of a counter flow esterification column, where the fats and/or oils exhibit a temperature of 180-300[deg] C at the time of entering in the column, during which the column is supplied from bottom with an univalent or polyvalent 1-18 carbons alcohol, where the alcohol is evaporated at the time of entering in the column and optionally is superheated at a temperature of 150-300[deg] C, and downwardly delivering the fats and/or oils over the built-in components provided in the column, during which the alcohol in the counter flow is conducted upwardly as vapor and the formed reaction water and excess alcohol are reduced at the head of the column as exhaust vapor. An independent claim is included for producing fatty acid alkyl ester comprising transesterification of fats and/or oils with univalent alcohols, where the fats and/or oils, which are produced by the above process, are used as raw materials.