PROCESS FOR PRODUCING FATTY ACID ESTER AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING GLYCEROL

摘要

A process for producing a fatty acid ester from a fat and a monohydric alcohol with a chemical catalyst, which comprises continuously feeding an excess of a monohydric alcohol in the state of superheated vapor to a reaction system to cause the alcohol to undergo transesterification with a fat, continuously discharging a fatty-acid-ester-containing reaction product in the state of a vapor phase or a mixed phase comprising the vapor phase and a droplet state phase together with the monohydric alcohol in a superheated vapor state, and separating and recovering the fatty acid ester. It is a simple process by which high-purity products (a fatty acid ester and glycerol) can be obtained at low cost and high reaction efficiency without the need of a catalyst separation step.