Interesterification catalyst and process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9850450-B2
Application number	US-201414911332-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2014
Priority date	Aug 28, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A process for the production of an ester product from a mixture of at least two different ester compounds includes the steps of mixing together at least two different starting ester compounds to form a first ester mixture; and contacting the first ester mixture with a catalyst including from 30-60% of calcium oxide and at least one second metal oxide at a temperature of at least 180° C., for a duration of at least one hour, with mixing, to form a second ester mixture having a melting point which is lower than the melting point of the first ester mixture.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An interesterification process for the production of an ester product from a mixture of at least two different ester compounds comprises the steps of:
a) mixing together at least two different starting ester compounds to form a first ester mixture; and
b) contacting said first ester mixture with a catalyst comprising from 30-60 weight % of calcium oxide and at least one second metal oxide such that an interesterification reaction takes place to form a second ester mixture having a melting point which is lower than the melting point of said first ester mixture, said second metal oxide is selected from the group consisting of an oxide of a Group 2A metal other than calcium, an oxide of a transition metal, lanthana, silica, alumina and a metal aluminate.

2. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of said at least two different starting ester compounds is a triglyceride.

3. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the starting ester compounds comprises an ester of a carboxylic acid containing from 12 to 24 carbon atoms.

4. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is pre-dispersed in at least one of said starting ester compounds.

5. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second metal oxide comprises magnesium oxide.

6. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the catalyst further comprises from 1-5 weight % of an alkali metal.

7. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the catalyst has a surface area less than 20 m 2 /g.

8. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the interesterification takes place at a temperature between 0 and 300° C.

9. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is separated from the second ester mixture and added to a first ester mixture for use in a subsequent process.

10. The interesterification process according to claim 1 wherein said catalyst comprises from 30-60 weight % of calcium oxide, from 40-70 weight % of magnesium oxide and from 0 to 5 weight % of sodium or potassium.

11. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 2 , wherein at least one of the starting ester compounds comprises an ester of a carboxylic acid containing from 12 to 24 carbon atoms.

12. The interesterification process as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the catalyst is pre-dispersed in at least one of said starting ester compounds.

Assignees

• Johnson Matthey Plc

Inventors

• Ellis Peter Richard
• Evans Gary
• Zwijnenburg Aalbert

Classifications

• B01J2523/22

  Magnesium · CPC title

• B01J37/03

  Precipitation; Co-precipitation · CPC title

• B01J35/023

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• C11C3/10 Primary

  Ester interchange · CPC title

• C07C67/02

  by interreacting ester groups, i.e. transesterification · CPC title