Patent ID: 8580984

Claim:
A process for preparing an ester of a secondary hydroxy fatty acid oligomer, the process comprising: a. partially homopolymerizing a hydroxylated fatty acid methyl ester, using a tin-containing, titanium-containing or nitrogen-containing catalyst and removing formed methanol, optionally by using one or more of an entrainer, reduced pressure and nitrogen sparging, to yield a product X with distribution of compounds represented by Formula 1 as follows: where R is an alkyl group that contains from six to twelve carbon atoms, R 1 is hydrogen or a methyl radical, x is an integer within a range of from 8 to 12 and n is an integer between 1 and 20; b. optionally recovering product X from residual methanol and, when used, the entrainer; c. reacting product X with an alcohol that contains from two to twenty carbon atoms, optionally using an additional amount of a tin-containing, titanium-containing or nitrogen-containing catalyst, and removing formed methanol to yield a product Y with distribution of compounds represented by Formula 2 as follows: where R, x and n are as defined above and R 2 is an alkyl group that contains from two carbon atoms to twenty carbon atoms; d. optionally recovering product Y from excess step c alcohol and residual methanol; e. reacting product Y with an acid, an acid anhydride or an ester to form product Z with a distribution of compounds represented by Formula 3 as follows: where R, x and n are as defined above, R 2 is an alkyl group that contains from two carbon atoms to twenty carbon atoms and R 3 is an alkyl group that contains from one carbon atom to twelve carbon atoms; and f. optionally recovering product Z from excess acid, acid anhydride or ester added as a reactant in step e and acid formed during reaction of Y with the acid, acid anhydride or ester.