Patent ID: 7064223

Claim:
A process for making technical oleic acid methyl esters having a stearic acid methyl ester content of less than about 2% by weight, and a palmitic acid methyl ester content of less than about 5%, comprising: (a) providing a C 8-18 palm kernel oil fatty acid methyl ester; (b) fractionally distilling said C 8-18 palm kernel oil fatty acid methyl ester to form a C 8-14 head product and a C 16-18 bottom product; (c) fractionally distilling the C 16-18 bottom product to form a short-chain C 16 head product and a long-chain and unsaturated C 18 bottom product; (d) fractionally distilling the long-chain and unsaturated C 18 bottom product to form a predominantly unsaturated head product having a high palmitic acid methyl ester content and a predominantly unsaturated bottom product have a minimal palmitic acid methyl ester content; and (e) fractionally distilling the predominantly unsaturated bottom product have a minimal palmitic acid methyl ester content to form a head product rich in oleic acid methyl ester and poor in stearic acid methyl ester and a bottom product rich in both oleic acid methyl ester and stearic acid methyl ester.