Patent ID: 8735640

Claim:
A method of refining a natural oil, comprising: providing a feedstock comprising a natural oil glyceride; providing a low-molecular-weight olefin or a mid-weight olefin; reacting the feedstock and the low-molecular-weight olefin or the mid-weight olefin in a metathesis reactor in the presence of a metathesis catalyst to form a metathesized product comprising olefins and metathesized glycerides; separating the olefins in the metathesized product from the metathesized glycerides in the metathesized product; transesterifying the metathesized glycerides in the presence of an alcohol to form a transesterified product comprising glycerin and fatty acid esters having no glycerin backbone; and recycling at least a portion of the fatty acid esters in the transesterified product to the metathesis reactor.