Process for producing unsaturated fatty alcohols from lauric oils

摘要

Production of unsaturated fatty alcohols from lauric oils by selective hydrogenation of unsaturated methyl ester fraction separated by fractional crystallisation. Production of unsaturated fatty alcohols comprises: (a) transesterifying a deacidified lauric oil with methanol to obtain a total fatty acid methyl ester mixture; (b) separating the ester mixture into a 12-16C methyl ester fraction (I) and an 18C methyl ester fraction (II) by fractional distillation, where (II) contains practically all of the unsaturated methyl esters; (c) winterizing fraction (II) by solventless fractional crystallization to remove saturated methyl esters; (d) subjecting the winterized fraction (II) to selective hydrogenation to obtain unsaturated fatty alcohols with an iodine number of 90-100; (e) purifying the unsaturated fatty alcohols by distillation; and optionally (f) blending the product with other fatty alcohols to obtain a desired iodine number.