Renewable fatty acid waxes and methods of making

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9290719-B2
Application number	US-201213728560-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2012
Priority date	Jan 10, 2012
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

Natural oil based fatty acid wax compositions and their methods of making are provided. The methods comprise providing a natural oil, and hydrogenating and metathesizing the natural oil, and then converting the hydrogenated metathesized natural oil to obtain a fatty acid wax comprising free fatty acids and/or salts of fatty acids, glycerol and/or alcohol, and paraffin, wherein the fatty acid wax has at least 50 wt % of carbon chain compositions with at least 18 carbon atoms. The compositions may comprise 85-100 wt % long-chain fatty acids, 0-15 wt % esters, wherein the fatty acid comprises between 15-60 wt % long chain di-acids and 40-85 wt % long chain mono-acids. The compositions may comprise about 50-100 wt % long-chain fatty acids and about 0-50 wt % esters, wherein the fatty acid may comprise between about 15-80 wt % long chain di-acids and about 20-85 wt % long chain monoacids.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a natural oil based fatty acid wax composition comprising:
providing a natural oil;
self-metathesizing the natural oil to obtain a metathesized natural oil;
following the self-metathesizing, hydrogenating the metathesized natural oil to obtain a hydrogenated metathesized natural oil; and
reacting the hydrogenated metathesized natural oil with water or a base to obtain a fatty acid wax, which comprises a free fatty acids or salts of fatty acids, (b) glycerol or alcohol, and (c) paraffin,
wherein compounds having at least 18 carbon atoms make up at least 50 wt% of the fatty acid wax.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising distilling the fatty acid wax under conditions sufficient to remove at least 80 wt % of the light fraction of the fatty acid wax.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing the glycerol or alcohol from the fatty acid wax.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reacting comprises saponifying the hydrogenated metathesized natural oil.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the saponifying comprises using a phase transfer catalyst.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reacting comprises reacting the hydrogenated metathesized natural oil with water.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the reacting is carried out by a mechanism selected from the group consisting of the Twitchell process, enzymatic fat-splitting, batch autoclave fat-splitting, and continuous process fat-splitting.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fatty acid wax comprises 85-100 wt % long-chain fatty acids and 0-15 wt % esters, wherein the fatty acid comprises 15-60 wt % long chain di-acids and 40-85 wt % long chain mono-acids.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fatty acid wax has a needle penetration of 30 dmm or less.

Assignees

• Elevance Renewable Sciences

Inventors

• Mujkic Monika
• Tupy Michael
• Russell Stephen E
• Walters Scott
• Bergmann Benjamin
• Morie-Bebel Michelle
• Cohen Steven A
• Rizvi Syed Q A
• Dibiase Stephen A
• Zopp Garrett

Classifications

• C11C3/12

  by hydrogenation · CPC title

• C11C3/123

  using catalysts based principally on nickel or derivates · CPC title

• C11C1/025 Primary

  by saponification and release of fatty acids · CPC title

• C11B11/00 Primary

  Recovery or refining of other fatty substances, e.g. lanolin or waxes · CPC title

• C11B13/00

  Recovery of fats, fatty oils or fatty acids from waste materials · CPC title