Patent GB-380707-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the separation of unsaponifiable matter from fatty acid materials
IPC: C07C51/41
Filed: 1932-02-15
Abstract: In a process for separating unsaponifiable constituents contained in oils, fats, waxes, or the oxidation products of hydrocarbons, by treating the crude material with a saponifying agent followed by distillation, the saponifiable constituents are converted into a mixture of magnesium, calcium, and potassium soaps.  The bases are used in such proportions that the resulting crude saponified product has a melting-point below 150 DEG  C., whereby overheating and decomposition of the soaps is prevented. Wool fat, carnauba wax or sperm oil is stirred and heated under ordinary or superatmospheric pressure with a mixture of bases consisting oj about 20 per cent of potassium, 20 per cent of calcium, and 60 per cent of magnesium hydroxides, and the unsaponified materials are then removed from the resulting mixture by distillation preferably under reduced pressure and with inert gases or vapours, as described in Specification 213,267, [Class 91, Oils &c.].  The residues of soaps are treated with a mineral acid to liberate the fatty acids which may be purified by distillation in steam.  The bases may be added simultaneously or consecutively, in which case the weakest base is added first; or portions of the crude material are each saponified with one of the bases and the resulting soaps mixed together.  Distillation may be effected by spreading the saponified mixture over a heated surface in a thin layer, for example on rotating rollers, and leading in superheated steam.  The process may be applied to the products obtained by partially hydrogenating oleic acid as described in Specification 356,731.ALSO:In a process for separating unsaponifiable constituents contained in oils, fats, waxes or from the oxidation products of hydrocarbons, by treating the crude material with a saponifying agent followed by distillation, the saponifiable constituents are converted into a mixture of magnesium, calcium, and potassium soaps.  The bases are used in such proportions that the resulting crude saponified product has a melting point below 150 DEG C., whereby overheating and decomposition thereof is prevented.  Wool fat, carnauba wax or sperm oil is stirred and heated at ordinary or superatmospheric pressure with a mixture of bases consisting of about 20 per cent of potassium, 20 per cent of calcium, and 60 per cent of magnesium hydroxides, and the unsaponified materials are then removed from the resulting mixture by distillation, preferably under reduced pressure, and with inert gases or vapours, as described in Specification 213,267, [Class 91, Oils &c.].  The residue of soaps may be treated with a mineral acid to liberate the fatty acids which are purified by distillation in steam.  The bases may be added simultaneously, or consecutively, in which case the weakest base is added first; or portions of the crude material are each saponified with one of the bases and the resulting soaps mixed together. Distillation may be effected by spreading the saponified mixture over a heated surface in a thin layer, for example on rotating rollers, and leading in superheated steam.  The process may be applied to the products obtained by partially hydrogenating stearic acid as described in Specification 356,731.