Patent ID: 8957268
Filing Date: 2015-02-17
Classification: C07C,C10G,C10L,C11B,C11C,Y02E,Y02P,Y02T

Abstract:
1. A method of refining a natural oil, comprising: providing (a) a feedstock comprising natural oil glycerides and (b) low-molecular-weight alpha-olefins; cross-metathesizing the natural oil glycerides with the low-molecular-weight alpha-olefins in a metathesis reactor in the presence of a metathesis catalyst to provide a metathesized product comprising alpha-olefins and metathesized glycerides; separating at least a portion of the alpha-olefins of the metathesized product and at least a portion of the metathesized glycerides of the metathesized product, to provide a first stream comprising separated alpha-olefins and second stream comprising separated metathesized glycerides; transesterifying the separated metathesized glycerides of the second stream in the presence of an alcohol to provide a transesterified product comprising glycerin and fatty acid esters having no glycerin backbone; and recycling at least a portion of the separated alpha-olefins of the first stream to the metathesis reactor.