New developments in synthetic fatty acids

New developments in synthetic fatty acids have occurred in the last few years in Russia, Japan, the United States and Canada. In 1959 Russia decided to replace 40% of natural fatty acids in soaps with synthetic fatty acids. In 1966, 548 million pounds of C₅–C₃₀ synthetic fatty acids were produced including 288 million pounds of C₁₀–C₂₀ fatty acids. Forty million pounds of fatty acids are converted directly to the fatty alcohols for detergent use. A conservative estimate predicts that one billion pounds of synthetic fatty acids will be produced in Russia by the end of the current five-year program. Reports say that the Japanese have been interested in the oxidation of not only paraffin hydrocarbons but naphthenic petroleum hydrocarbons as well. Production of lower homology fatty acids up to butyric acid is being seriously considered in Japan. In America the most likely syntheses aside from “oxo” syntheses being considered for the manufacture of products like lauric acid is the carboxylation of the Ziegler intermediates prepared from ethylene polymerization. Some data on the current and future coconut oil consumption by major end-use for Canada and the United States are presented. Synthetic lauric acid is predicted for 1970 in the United States. Prepared from an address given at a meeting of the Northeast Section, New York, June 1968.