Process for obtaining fatty acid alkyl esters, rosin acids and sterols from crude tall oil

A process for obtaining fatty acid alkyl esters, rosin acids and sterols from crude tall oil, comprising subjecting the crude tall oil to the following steps:

• (a) esterifying the free fatty acids present in the crude tall oil with lower alcohols to form the fatty acid lower alkyl esters;
• (b) esterifying the sterols in the crude tall oil with boric acid to form sterol borate esters or transesterifying the sterols in the presence of a transesterification catalyst to form sterol esters of fatty acids;
• (c) separating the fatty acid lower alkyl esters formed in step (a) and the already present rosin acids from the remaining sterol borate esters or sterol esters of fatty acids to produce a stream of sterol borate esters and sterol esters of fatty acids;
• (d) separating the remaining the fatty acid alkyl esters from the remaining rosin acids to produce a first stream of fatty acid alky esters and a second stream of rosin acids;
• and
• (e) converting the sterol borate esters or the sterol esters of fatty acids into the free sterols to produce a third stream of free sterols.