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US 11,691,941 B2Granted
Methods for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoates
AssigneeCargill, Incorporated
InventorsTimothy Walter Abraham, Anthony Louis Duran, Stephen C. Edgar, Ravi R. Gokarn
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Abstract
Methods and systems for producing alkyl hydroxyalkanoates from hydroxycarboxylic acid recovery bottoms. The methods generally comprise the steps of obtaining a hydroxycarboxylic acid recovery bottom, adding a mono-alcohol to the hydroxycarboxylic acid recovery bottom to obtain a first mixture, heating the first mixture, optionally in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction product, distilling the reaction product, and recovering an alkyl hydroxyalkanoate fraction.
Claims17
A method for producing ethyl lactate, comprising:
- a) obtaining a hydroxyalkanoate containing composition, comprising:
- (i) at least 40 percent by weight hydroxyalkanoate equivalents;
- (ii) greater than 0 and less than 45 percent by weight free hydroxyalkanoates;
- (iii) at least 1 percent by weight saccharide equivalents;
- and
- (iv) less than 5 percent by weight water;
- b) mixing ethanol in a molar ratio of from about 1.1 to 1.0 to about 10.0 to 1.0 of ethanol to hydroxyalkanoate equivalents present in the hydroxyalkanoate containing composition to obtain a first mixture;
- c) heating the first mixture to form a reaction product;
- d) distilling the reaction product and recovering ethyl lactate fraction comprising:
- (i) at least 90 percent by weight ethyl lactate;
- (ii) less than 1 percent by weight lactic 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.