Oleochemistry

Key takeaways

Oleochemistry belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oleochemistry to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oleochemistry from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oleochemistry is the study of vegetable oils and animal oils and fats, and oleochemicals derived from these fats and oils. The resulting product can be called oleochemicals (from Latin: oleum "olive oil"). The major product of this industry is soap, approximately 8.9 million tons of which were produced in 1990. Other major oleochemicals include fatty acids, fatty acid methyl esters, fatty alcohols and fatty amines. Glycerol is a side product of all of these processes. Intermediate chemical substances produced from these basic oleochemical substances include alcohol ethoxylates, alcohol sulfates, alcohol ether sulfates, quaternary ammonium salts, monoacylglycerols (MAG), diacylglycerols (DAG), structured triacylglycerols (TAG), sugar esters, and other oleochemical products. As the price of crude oil rose in the late 1970s, manufacturers switched from petrochemicals to oleochemicals because plant-based lauric oils processed from palm kernel oil were cheaper. Since then, palm kernel oil is predominantly used in the production of laundry detergent and personal care items like toothpaste, soap bars, shower cream and shampoo.

Processes Important process in oleochemical manufacturing include hydrolysis and transesterification, among others.

Hydrolysis The splitting (or hydrolysis) of the triglycerides produces fatty acids and glycerol follows this equation:

RCO2CH2–CHO2CR–CH2O2CR + 3 H2O → 3 RCOOH + HOCH2–CHOH–CH2OH To this end, hydrolysis is conducted in water at 250 °C. The cleavage of triglycerides with base proceeds more quickly than hydrolysis, the process being saponification. Saponification however produces soap, whereas the desired product of hydrolysis are the fatty acids.

Transesterification Fats react with alcohols (R'OH) instead of with water in hydrolysis in a process called transesterification. Glycerol is produced together with the fatty acid esters. Most typically, the reaction entails the use of methanol (MeOH) to give fatty acid methyl esters:

RCO2CH2–CHO2CR–CH2O2CR + 3 MeOH → 3 RCO2Me + HOCH2–CHOH–CH2OH FAMEs are less viscous than the precursor fats and can be purified to give the individual fatty acid esters, e.g. methyl oleate vs methyl palmitate.

Hydrogenation The fatty acid or fatty esters are susceptible to hydrogenation converts unsaturated fatty acids into saturated fatty acids. The acids or esters can also be reduced to the fatty alcohols. For some applications, fatty acids are converted to fatty nitriles. Hydrogenated of these nitriles gives fatty amines, which have a variety of applications.

Gelation Liquid oil can also be immobilized in a 3D-network provided by various molecules called oleogelators.

Applications The largest application for oleochemicals, about 30% of market share for fatty acids and 55% for fatty alcohols, is for making soaps and detergents. Lauric acid is used to produce sodium lauryl sulfate and related compounds, which are used to make soaps and other personal care products. Other applications of oleochemicals include the production of lubricants, solvents, biodiesel and bioplastics. Due to the use of methyl esters in biodiesel production, they represent the fastest growing sub-sector of oleochemical production in recent years.

Oleochemical industry development

Europe Through the 1996 creation of Novance and the 2008 acquisition of Oleon, Avril Group has dominated the European market of oleochemistry.

Southeast Asia Southeast Asian countries' rapid production growth of palm oil and palm kernel oil in the 1980s spurred the oleochemical industry in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Many oleochemical plants were built. Though a nascent and small industry when pitted against big detergent giants in the US and Europe, oleochemical companies in southeast Asia had competitive edge in cheap ingredients. The US fatty chemical industry found it difficult to consistently maintain acceptable levels of profits. Competition was intense with market shares divided among many companies there where neither imports nor exports played a significant role. By the late 1990s, giants like Henkel, Unilever, and Petrofina sold their oleochemical factories to focus on higher profit activities like retail of consumer goods. Since the Europe outbreak of 'mad cow disease' (or bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in 2000, tallow is replaced for many uses by vegetable oleic fatty acids, such as palm kernel and coconut oils.

References

External links

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oleochemistry

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oleochemistry claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oleochemistry before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oleochemistry ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oleochemistry

In research: Oleochemistry appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oleochemistry in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oleochemistry is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lipids, Oils, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oleochemistry outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Oleochemistry in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oleochemistry means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oleochemistry out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oleochemistry in simple terms?

Oleochemistry is the study of vegetable oils and animal oils and fats, and oleochemicals derived from these fats and oils. The resulting product can be called oleochemicals (from Latin: oleum "olive oil").

Why does Oleochemistry matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oleochemistry?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oleochemistry.