Glycerolysis of Fats and Methyl Esters.

Authors

• Hossein Noureddini, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• V Medikonduru, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

April 1997

Comments

This article was published in © Journal of American oil Chemists' society, Paper no. J8130 in JAOCS 74, 419-425 (1997) Article#: 1787 © American Oil Chemists' Society. Published version of this article is available at publisher site: http://www.aocs.org/press/jabs.asp?abs_id=1787&mo=4&yr=1997

Abstract

The glycerolysis of methyl esters and triglycerides with crude glycerol. a coproduct from the transesterification of triglycerides, was studied. Three procedures were followed ior this conversion. The first procedure was a one-step glycerolysis with methyl esters. The second procedure was a two-step process. This proced~~irnev olved an initial partial glycerolysis with methyl esters, followed by fat glycerolysis. The third procedure u,as a simultaneous glycerolysis n,ith methyl esters and triglycerides. In the glycerolysis with methyl esters, the removal of methanol is vital to the production of mono- and diglycerides. Methanol was removed either by drawing vacuum on the reactor or by stripping methanol out by means of an inert carrier gas (nitrogen]. Different molar ratios of methyl esters to glycerol were tested in the first two processes. At low concentration of methyi esters, total conversion oi methyl esters to mono- and diglycerides was achieved. As the concentration oi methyl esters was increased, the conversion of methyl esters to mono and diglvcerides was decreased. Furthermore, the ratio of mono- to diglycerides was also higher at lower roncentrations of methyl esters. The conversion of triglycerides in the two-step process with crude glycerol was similar to a one-step fat glycerolysis with pure glycerol. The composition of different coniponents and the ratio of mono to diglycerides were also comparable