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US 10,207,979 B2Granted
Methods for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoates
AssigneeCargill, Incorporated
InventorsTimothy Walter Abraham, Ravi R. Gokarn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoate from hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottoms. The methods generally comprise the steps of obtaining a hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottom, adding a mono-alcohol to the hydroxy carboxylic acid recovery bottom to obtain a first mixture, heating the first mixture in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction product, distilling the reaction product, and recovering an alkyl hydroxyalkanoate fraction.
Claims18
A method for producing an alkyl hydroxypropionate, the method comprising:
- a) obtaining a hydroxyalkanoate containing composition comprising hydroxypropionate, the hydroxyalkanoate containing composition further comprising:
- (i) at least 40 percent by weight hydroxyalkanoate equivalents;
- (ii) less than 45 percent by weight free hydroxyalkanoates;
- (iii) at least 1 percent by weight saccharide equivalents;
- and
- (iv) less than 15 percent by weight water;
- b) mixing a mono-alcohol selected from the group consisting of C1 to C6 mono-alcohols in a molar ratio of from 1.1:1 to 10.0:1 of mono-alcohol to hydroxyalkanoate equivalents present in the hydroxyalkanoate containing composition to obtain a first mixture;
- c) heating the first mixture in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction product;
- d) distilling the reaction product and recovering an alkyl hydroxypropionate fraction comprising:
- (i) at least 90 percent by weight alkyl hydroxypropionate;
- (ii) less than 1 percent by weight hydroxypropionic acid;
- (iii) less than 1 percent by weight water;
- and
- (iv) less than 0.5 percent by weight saccharide equivalents.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.