New developments in the fatty acid industry in America

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Abstract
Although acquisition, divestiture and other organizational changes within the American oleochemical industry are still the most startling and attention‐attracting, the development of new technology continues to be of paramount scientific interest. Noteworthy among the new developments are (a) the continuing development of new vegetable oil raw materials like 90% erucic acid rapeseed oil and 80% oleic acid sunflower; (b) the intense process development under way in some areas for the minimization of thermal energy requirements of certain reactions like polymerization (dimer acids), glycerolysis (mono‐ and diglycerides) and fat splitting; (c) the ever‐increasing substitution of methyl esters for fatty acids in the production of a whole series of oleochemicals; (d) development of new esterification catalysts; (e) lipase catalysis of interesterification; (f) development of new corrosion‐resistant materials of construction; (g) the use of irradition sulfoxylation as a preferred production route to randomly sulfonated methyl esters; and (h) superemulsification as an aid to hydrophobic/hydrophilic liquid chemical reactions. Continued attention to alternative feedstocks, biotechnology, microprocessor technology, pollution control and lower energy consumption are certain to receive considerable attention for the next several years.

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