Recovery of dicarboxylic acids from triglycerides
AssigneeNovamont S.p.A.
InventorsLuigi CAPUZZI, Francesca DIGIOIA, Lorenzo QUATRALE
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Abstract
Process for obtaining dicarboxylic acids from a mixture of triglycerides of dicarboxylic acids comprising the steps of a) hydrolysing said mixture of triglycerides of dicarboxylic acids in the presence of a basic aqueous solution, resulting in a hydrolysis product emulsion; b) acidifying the product from step a) until the emulsion is separated; c) separating an aqueous phase containing dicarboxylic acids in partly dissociated form and glycerol from the product of step b), d) acidifying the aqueous phase separated in step c) to a pH of 3 or below.
Claims20
A process for obtaining dicarboxylic acids from a mixture of triglycerides of dicarboxylic acids comprising the steps of:
- a) hydrolysing said mixture of triglycerides of dicarboxylic acids in the presence of a basic aqueous solution, obtaining a hydrolysis product emulsion;
- b) acidifying the product from step a) until the emulsion separates;
- c) separating an aqueous phase containing dicarboxylic acids in a partially dissociated form and glycerol from the product from step b), and
- d) acidifying the aqueous phase separated from step c) to a pH of 3 or below, yielding dicarboxylic acids.
The process according to claim comprising, before to step a), the preliminary steps of:
- (i) hydrolysing said triglyceride mixture of dicarboxylic acids in the absence of a base,
- (ii) separating a first aqueous phase, comprising glycerol, from a first organic phase containing the remaining hydrolysis product from step (i), and
- (iii) evaporating and/or distilling said first organic phase to remove the free dicarboxylic and monocarboxylic acids contained therein,
- obtaining an evaporation and/or distillation residue comprising a mixture of unhydrolysed or partially hydrolysed glycerides of dicarboxylic acids to be fed to step a).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.