This is from page 126 of the book _Glycerol_, by A.A. Newman (CRC, 1968): "(iii) Alcoholysis
Alcoholysis, which involves the replacement of glycerol in the glyceride molecule by a cheaper alcohol, such as methanol or ethanol, has represented a means of obtaining glycerol in high concentration and purity but such a process is only operated under the unusual circumstances of requiring fatty acids in the form of their ethyl or methyl esters, as in the manufacture of fatty alcohols by high-pressure hydrogenation. The glycerol is recovered by evaporating the alcohol; complete removal sometimes offers difficulties and such crude glycerols are liable to contain some alcohol. " That last part won't be news to anyone on this list, but it's the business about "unusual circumstances" that intrigues me. I didn't know that transesterification was an intermediate step in converting fatty acids to fatty alcohols, but that being the case, why would the circumstances be unusual? Fatty alcohols are used in detergent manufacture - surely that was already well established in 1968? Perhaps it's the high-pressure hydrogenation process that's unusual? Anybody have the answer? If I'm reading this right, there should be considerable information in the detergent production literature that is directly transferable to what we are doing (or in my case, trying to do). Marc de Piolenc Iligan, Philippines Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
