Wax compositions and methods of preparing wax compositions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8940090-B2
Application number	US-201314069076-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2013
Priority date	Feb 16, 2007
Publication date	Jan 27, 2015
Grant date	Jan 27, 2015

Abstract

Described are morphology stable wax compositions comprising the (trans)esterification product of a wax-forming composition comprising: (a) a triglyceride stock, a fatty acid stock, or a mixture thereof; and (b) a glycerol-based composition comprising glycerol, polyglycerol, or a mixture thereof. Methods of making the waxes are also described. The wax compositions may be used in candles, stack waxes, jell candles, cosmetics, food coatings, adhesives, board manufacturing (e.g., particle board and oriented strand board), urethane foams or coatings, alkyd coatings, coating formulation additives, printing additives, polymer processing agents, extrusion processing aids, polymer plasticizers, mold releases, polishes, and stick markers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of making a morphology stable wax composition comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a composition comprising a triglyceride stock, a fatty acid stock, or a mixture thereof;
(b) providing a glycerol-based composition comprising glycerol, polyglycerol, or a mixture thereof, wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises: about 75 wt % or greater total of polyglycerol species comprising diglycerol, triglycerol, and tetraglycerol; and up to about 10 wt % or less total of polyglycerol species of hexaglycerol and greater; and
(c) reacting the composition of step (a) with the glycerol-based composition of step (b) under reaction conditions sufficient to transesterify the composition of step (a) with the glycerol-based composition of step (b) to produce the morphology stable wax composition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (c) is conducted in the presence of a catalyst at a temperature between 100° C. and 275° C.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (c) is conducted in the presence of a catalyst at a temperature between 230° C. and 260° C.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology stable wax composition is produced using a continuous process, wherein the compositions of step (a) and step (b) are continuously injected into a high sheer mixer and the morphology stable wax composition produced in step (c) is continuously removed.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology stable wax composition is produced using a batch process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 0 to about 70 wt % glycerol, about 20 to 40 wt % diglycerol, about 5 to 30 wt % triglycerol, about 0 to 20 wt % tetraglycerol, about 0 to 10 wt % pentaglycerol, about 0 to 10 wt % hexaglycerol, about 0 to 5 wt % heptaglycerol and higher order oligomers, and about 0 to 5 wt % cyclic polyglycerol.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 1 wt % to about 65 wt % glycerol.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 30 wt % to about 65 wt % glycerol.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 1 wt % to about 20 wt % tetraglycerol.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 55 to 65 wt % glycerol; about 20 to 40 wt % diglycerol; about 5 to 30 wt % triglycerol; about 1% to 10 wt % tetraglycerol; and up to about 5 wt % pentaglycerol.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises about 30 to 35 wt % glycerol; about 25 to 40 wt % diglycerol; about 15 to 30 wt % triglycerol; about 5 to 10 wt % tetraglycerol; up to about 5 wt % pentaglycerol; up to about 5 wt % hexaglycerol; and up to about 5 wt % cyclic glycerol.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the glycerol-based composition comprises up to about 5 wt % glycerol; about 30 to 40 wt % diglycerol; about 20 to 30 wt % triglycerol; about 10 to 20 wt % tetraglycerol; about 5 to 15 wt % pentaglycerol; about to about 10 wt % hexaglycerol; up to about 10 wt % heptaglycerol and higher order oligomers; and up to about 5 wt % cyclic glycerol.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology stable wax composition has a melting point and a congeal point; and wherein the difference between the melting point and the congeal point is about 10° C. or less.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology stable wax composition has a melting point and a congeal point; and wherein the difference between the melting point and the congeal point is about 5° C. or less.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology based wax composition comprises about 0.1 wt % to about 35 wt % of the glycerol-based composition.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology based wax composition comprises about 5 wt % to about 30 wt % of the glycerol-based composition.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphology based wax composition comprises about 60 wt % to about 99.9 wt % of the triglyceride stock.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a diamine compound to adjust the melting point of the morphology stable wax composition.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the diamine compound comprises hexamethylene diamine, ethylenediamine, or a mixture thereof.

Assignees

• Elevance Renewable Sciences

Inventors

• Lemke Daniel Wayne
• Thiede Michael C

Classifications

• C08K5/053

  Polyhydroxylic alcohols · CPC title

• C08L91/00

  Compositions of oils, fats or waxes; Compositions of derivatives thereof · CPC title

• C08L91/06 Primary

  Waxes · CPC title