Patent ID: 8193383

Claim:
A process for the continuous production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) or fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) from vegetable and/or animal fats and/or oils by transesterification of the triglycerides contained in the fats and oils with methanol or ethanol in the presence of an alkaline catalyst in liquid phase at a temperature of 30 to 90° C. and at atmospheric pressure in at least two reaction stages traversed in succession, which each comprise a stirred-tank reactor with downstream separator, in that a light phase containing FAME or FAEE and a heavy phase containing glycerol are generated in the stirred-tank reactors, the light phase containing FAME or FAEE and the heavy phase containing glycerol are separated from each other in the separator downstream of the respective stirred-tank reactor, the phase containing FAME or FAEE is supplied to the stirred-tank reactor of the next succeeding reaction stage, the glycerol-containing phase withdrawn from the separator of the second to last reaction stages is recirculated into the stirred-tank reactor of the first reaction stage, the crude FAME or crude FAEE withdrawn from the separator of the last reaction stage is transferred into a separator after acid water washing, and the FAME or FAEE withdrawn from this separator is dried, wherein the aqueous phase comprises 0.5 to 2 wt-% of glycerol, 2 to 8 wt-% of methanol or ethanol, 0.05 to 0.5 wt-% of undissociated soaps and 0.05 to 0.5 wt-% of FAME or FAEE, which is discharged from the separator, is thoroughly mixed with the heavy phases withdrawn from the separators of the first to penultimate reaction stages, which contain glycerol and 0.5 to 3 wt-% of FAME or FAEE, and then is supplied to a separator, in which a separation into a phase containing FAME or FAEE and a phase containing glycerol is effected.