FATTY ALCOHOLSPrepared by:

Nurul Afifah Binti Mohd Yusoff

2013275464

EH110 4B

Faculty of Chemical Engineering

Lecturer’s name : Miss NorKamruzita Saadon

Define fatty alcohols

Describe the production processes of fatty alcohols and its derivatives

Draw the flow chart of fatty alcohol production

Explain the uses and application of fatty alcohols.

Definition of Fatty Alcohols

Fatty alcohols are the workhorse raw materials that facilitate the existence of products such as shampoos, shaving creams, laundry detergents, etc, and are produced at a rate of about one-and-a-half million tonnes per year and growing. Fatty alcohols are oleochemicals derived from vegetable feedstocks. The feedstock raw materials include coconut and palm kernel oils. These refined vegetable oils are first converted to a methyl ester or fatty acid. This reaction generates crude glycerine. The intermediate methyl ester or fatty acid are then fractionated and hydrogenated to produce fatty alcohol.

Sources : http://www.pgchemicals.com/products/fatty-alcohols/

Chemical Equation for Fatty Alcohol Production

Sources : http://www.pgchemicals.com/products/fatty-alcohols/

Block diagram of Fatty Alcohol production process

Fatty acids are converted into methyl ester and hydrogenated into fatty alcohols.

Sources : http://www.abq.org.br/workshop/11/ADRIANO-SALES-%20FIRJAM_Oleochemicals-from-Palm-Kernel-Oil.pdf

Hydrogenation

All natural fatty alcohol processes are based on renewable fats and oils like coconut, palm oil,palm kernel,rope seed and soya bean oil.

It has been proven that hydrogenation of methyl esters are preferred alternatives than hydrogenating the oils directly.

Using fixed bed hydrogenation process offers the advantage of lower hydrogenation temperatures and pressures.

Using special catalysts, this process is able to produce unsaturated fatty alcohols too.

To produce fatty alcohols, there are three routes which is acid route,ester route and wax ester route that are shown in the following block diagrams.

- Acid route- Ester route- Wax ester route

Acid Route

Acid route

For the fatty acid routes, the free fatty acids from oil purification and split fatty acids are used. The acid route uses the Lurgi slurry process, where the catalyst is suspended in loop type reactor allowing.

The reactor contains an excess of fatty alcohol and the fatty acid is fed separately.

Alternatively the fatty acids are pre-esterified and fed to a fixed hydrogenation reactor.

Ester route

Ester route

The ester is produced from fats and oils through transesterification.

Then,it will go through fractionation process and react with methanol to produce FAME.

Fatty alcohol is then produced from fixed bed hydrogenation and fractionation.

Wax ester route

Wax Ester route

Wax ester route is the production of fatty alcohol from fatty acid and fatty alcohol itself.

Both fatty acid and fatty alcohol will produce wax ester after esterification process.

The wax ester is then going through fixed bed hydrogenation and fractionation to produce fatty alcohol.

Sources : http://www.teckguan.com/cn/main.htmso

Uses and applications of fattyalcohols

Fatty Alcohols are widely used in surfactant, in the form of fatty alcohol ethoxylates, fatty alcohol sulfates and fatty alcohol ethoxysulfates. They are commonly found in personal care, oral care, laundry detergents, dish washing liquid, surface cleaners, cosmetics creams and lotions.

Other industrial application includes anti oxidant, falvour & fragrances, fabric softener, plasticizer, metal working and agro chemical intermediate.

Sources : http://www.ecogreenoleo.com/products.html

REFERENCES

http://www.pgchemicals.com/products/fatty-alcohols

http://www.pgchemicals.com/products/fatty-alcohols/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_kernel_oil http://www.abq.org.br/workshop/11/ADRIAN

O-SALES-%20FIRJAM_Oleochemicals-from-Palm-Kernel-Oil.pdf

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11746-999-0151-y

http://www.teckguan.com/cn/main.htmso http://www.ecogreenoleo.com/products.html