Process for separating saturated fatty acids from fatty acid mixtures

摘要

A process for removing saturated fatty acids from a primarily unsaturated fatty acid mixture is disclosed wherein the process comprises fractionally distilling off saturated C16 and other minor fatty acid components in the mixture to a level less than or equal to 4% by weight, adding a lower polyglycerol ester as a crystallization aid, then cooling and fractionally crystallizing out remaining saturated fatty acids to yield a product comprising less than 3.3% saturated fatty acids by weight.