Process for manufacturing a composition of fatty acid esters useful as gas oil substitute motor fuel with hydrated ethyl alcohol and the resultant esters composition
First Claim
1. A process for manufacturing a composition of fatty acid esters, useful as motor fuel substitute for gas oil, said composition comprising a major proportion of ethyl esters, by transesterification of a starting material oil or grease of vegetable or animal origin, or a mixture thereof, which starting material may contain free acids, said process comprising the following steps:
- (a) in a first acid transesterification step, reacting said starting material oil or grease with ethyl alcohol containing from 1 to 60% by weight of water, in the presence of an acid catalyst, at 70°
-150°
C. for a time sufficient to transesterify at least 75% of said oil or grease to ethyl ester, and recovering a raw ethyl ester phase containing free fatty acids and a glycerol phase and separating said phases from each other,(b) in a second step, reacting said separated raw ethyl ester phase at an acid pH with an alcohol selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol and simultaneously distilling water from the reaction mixture, so as to form additional ester from said free fatty acids present in said separated raw ethyl ester phase, while decreasing the content of said free fatty acids to at most about 2% by weight of said raw ethyl ester phase,(c) in a third step, reacting resultant reaction product of said second step with at least one aliphatic, linear or branched monoalcohol of 1 to 5 carbon atoms in the presence of a basic catalyst, thereby further reducing the content of said free fatty acid in the product of step (b) and forming a purified composition of fatty acid esters.
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Abstract
The invention concerns a process for manufacturing a composition of fatty acid esters useful as gas oil substitute motor fuel, said composition containing at least one hydrated ethyl alcohol.
The process comprises:
(A) A first acid transesterification step in the presence of at least one aliphatic, linear or branched monoalcohol of 1 to 5 carbon atoms, consisting at least partly of hydrated ethyl alcohol containing 1 to 60% by weight of water, said step leading to the formation of a phase mainly containing ethyl esters after removal of the produced glycerol phase,
(B) A second step wherein the initial free acidity or that formed during the first step in the phase containing the esters is decreased to a value at most equal to about 2%; and
(C) A third step of basic transesterification of the phase resulting from step B, in the presence of at least one aliphatic, linear or branched monoalcohol of 1 to 5 carbon atoms, with the recovery of the so-formed ester composition.
The composition of the invention can be used for combustion in Diesel engines.
137 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A process for manufacturing a composition of fatty acid esters, useful as motor fuel substitute for gas oil, said composition comprising a major proportion of ethyl esters, by transesterification of a starting material oil or grease of vegetable or animal origin, or a mixture thereof, which starting material may contain free acids, said process comprising the following steps:
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(a) in a first acid transesterification step, reacting said starting material oil or grease with ethyl alcohol containing from 1 to 60% by weight of water, in the presence of an acid catalyst, at 70°
-150°
C. for a time sufficient to transesterify at least 75% of said oil or grease to ethyl ester, and recovering a raw ethyl ester phase containing free fatty acids and a glycerol phase and separating said phases from each other,(b) in a second step, reacting said separated raw ethyl ester phase at an acid pH with an alcohol selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol and simultaneously distilling water from the reaction mixture, so as to form additional ester from said free fatty acids present in said separated raw ethyl ester phase, while decreasing the content of said free fatty acids to at most about 2% by weight of said raw ethyl ester phase, (c) in a third step, reacting resultant reaction product of said second step with at least one aliphatic, linear or branched monoalcohol of 1 to 5 carbon atoms in the presence of a basic catalyst, thereby further reducing the content of said free fatty acid in the product of step (b) and forming a purified composition of fatty acid esters. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification