Trans-acidolysis process for the preparation of carbohydrate fatty-acid esters

Abstract

The present invention relates to a low temperature, solvent-free trans-acidolysis process for preparing surface-active carbohydrate fatty-acid esters comprising the steps of: (e) reacting acylated carbohydrate with free fatty acid in the presence of acid catalyst, under reduced pressure, and without adding any solvent; (f) decolorizing and separating the reaction mixture obtained in step (a) into unreacted fatty acid layer and a carbohydrate fatty-ester layer; (g) precipitating out the unreacted acylated carbohydrate; (h) librating the hydroxyl groups by partial hydrolysis in the presence of an acid catalyst; (i) removing the unreacted free fatty acids and unreacted carbohydrate esters of low molecular-weight carboxylic acids during purification, and recycling the removed unreacted free fatty acids and carbohydrate esters to the starting reactant mixture.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.