New developments in the fatty acid industry in America

Although acquisition, divestiture and other organizational changes within the American oleochemical industry are still the most startling and attention-attracting, the development of new technology continues to be of paramount scientific interest. Noteworthy among the new developments are (a) the continuing development of new vegetable oil raw materials like 90% erucic acid rapeseed oil and 80% oleic acid sunflower; (b) the intense process development under way in some areas for the minimization of thermal energy requirements of certain reactions like polymerization (dimer acids), glycerolysis (mono- and diglycerides) and fat splitting; (c) the ever-increasing substitution of methyl esters for fatty acids in the production of a whole series of oleochemicals; (d) development of new esterification catalysts; (e) lipase catalysis of interesterification; (f) development of new corrosion-resistant materials of construction; (g) the use of irradition sulfoxylation as a preferred production route to randomly sulfonated methyl esters; and (h) superemulsification as an aid to hydrophobic/hydrophilic liquid chemical reactions. Continued attention to alternative feedstocks, biotechnology, microprocessor technology, pollution control and lower energy consumption are certain to receive considerable attention for the next several years.