Patent ID: 8884040

Claim:
A continuous process for preparing a fatty acid amide comprising the steps of reacting at least one fatty acid of the formula I R 3 —COOH (I) wherein R 3 is a substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic hydrocarbon radical having 5 to 50 carbon atoms with at least one amine of the formula II HNR 1 R 2 (II) wherein R 1 and R 2 are each independently hydrogen or a hydrocarbon radical having 1 to 100 carbon atoms forming an ammonium salt and subsequently converting this ammonium salt to the fatty acid amide under microwave irradiation in a reaction tube whose longitudinal axis is in the direction of propagation of the microwaves from a monomode microwave applicator and whose ratio of length to diameter is greater than 5, wherein the microwave applicator is configured as a cavity resonator, and wherein the cavity resonator is operated in E 01n mode where n is an integer from 1 to 200.