PROCESS FOR OBTAINING FATTY ACID ALKYL ESTERS, ROSIN ACIDS AND STEROLS FROM CRUDE TALL OIL

摘要

The disclosed invention refers to a process for obtaining fatty acid alkyl esters, rosin acids and sterols from crude tall oil (CTO), which is characterised by the following steps: (a) reacting the free fatty acids present in the CTO with lower alcohols; (b) esterifying the sterols in the CTO with boric acid or transesterifying the sterols with a catalyst; (c) separating the fatty acid lower alkyl esters and rosin acids from the remaining sterol borate esters or sterol esters of fatty acids to produce a stream of sterol esters; (d) separating the fatty acid alkyl esters from the rosin acids to produce a first stream of fatty acid alky esters and a second stream of rosin acids; and (e) converting the sterol esters into the free sterols to produce a third stream of free sterols.