| CPC C11C 3/10 (2013.01) [C11C 3/003 (2013.01)] | 14 Claims |
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1. A method of transesterifying a fatty acid triglyceride with a C1-30 aliphatic alcohol, the method comprising step (A):
(A) heating the fatty acid triglyceride with the C1-30 aliphatic alcohol in the presence of an acid;
wherein
the acid is selected from the group consisting of a sulfonic acid, a disulfonic acid, a hydroxycarboxylic acid, and a mixture thereof;
the molar ratio of fatty acid triglyceride to aliphatic alcohol is less than 1:6;
the heating in step (A) is in a temperature range of from 20 to less than 100° C.;
the reaction according to step (A) is carried out in presence of water, wherein said water is controlled such to range from 0.01 weight-% to 2.0 weight-% based on the weight of the fatty acid triglyceride (=100 weight-%);
the sulfonic acid is selected from methanesulfonic acid, butanesulfonic acid, octanesulfonic acid, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, perfluorobutanesulfonic acid, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, toluenesulfonic acid, p-trifluoromethylbenzene sulfonic acid, and a mixture of two or more thereof;
the disulfonic acid is or comprises ethane-1,2-disulfonic acid; and
the hydroxycarboxylic acid is selected from malic acid, citric acid, isocitric acid, glycolic acid, mandelic acid, lactic acid, tartronic acid, tartric acid, mevalonic acid, salicylic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and a mixture of two or more thereof;
the method further comprising:
terminating the reaction and cooling the reaction mixture to ambient temperature to obtain a phase separation resulting in a lower phase predominantly containing glycerol and the acid, and an upper phase predominantly comprising the formed fatty acid ester and excess C1-30 alcohol.
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