Methods for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9938224-B2
Application number	US-201415029357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2014
Priority date	Oct 17, 2013
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoate from hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottoms. The methods generally comprise the steps of obtaining a hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottom, adding a mono-alcohol to the hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottom to obtain a first mixture, beating the first mixture in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction product, distilling the reaction product, and recovering an alkyl hydroxyalkanoate fraction.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for producing ethyl lactate, comprising:
a) obtaining a lactic acid recovery bottom comprising saccharide equivalents;
b) mixing a ethanol with the lactic acid recovery bottom, comprising saccharide equivalents, to obtain a first mixture;
c) heating the first mixture in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction product; and
d) distilling the reaction product and recovering an ethyl lactate fraction;
wherein the lactic acid recovery bottom comprises:
at least 40 percent by weight hydroxyalkanoate equivalents;
less than 40 percent by weight free hydroxyalkanoates;
at least 1 percent by weight saccharide equivalents; and
less than 15 percent by weight water.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ethyl lactate fraction comprises:
a) at least 90 percent by weight ethyl lactate;
b) less than 1 percent by weight lactic acid;
c) less than 1 percent by weight water; and
d) less than 0.5 percent by weight saccharide equivalents.

Assignees

• Cargill Inc

Inventors

• Abraham Timothy Walter
• Gokarn Ravi R

Classifications

• C07C67/54

  by distillation · CPC title

• C07C67/03 Primary

  by reacting an ester group with a hydroxy group · CPC title

• C07C67/08 Primary

  by reacting carboxylic acids or symmetrical anhydrides with the hydroxy or O-metal group of organic compounds · CPC title

• C07C69/68

  Lactic acid esters · CPC title