Fats and Oils as Oleochemical Raw Materials.

Abstract

Vegetable oils and fats are important constituents of human and animal foodstuffs. Certain grades are industrially used and together with carbohydrates (cellulose, starch, saccharose from wood, grain, sugar cane and sugar beet) and proteins from a vegetable or animal source they are numbered among the renewable resources compared to fossil and mineral raw materials whose occurrence is limited and finite. In concepts for new products the price, performance and product safety criteria are equally important and have a correspondingly high importance right at the start of product development. To ensure a high degree of product safely for consumers and the environment renewable resources have often been shown to have advantages when compared with petrochemical raw materials and can therefore be regarded as being the ideal raw material basis for many applications. Results from oleochemistry show that the use of vegetable fats and oils allows the development of competitive, powerful products and product concepts which are both consumer-friendly and environmentally-friendly. Recent products which fit this requirement profile are the anionic surfactants cocomonoglyceride sulfate and protein-fatty acid condensate and the nonionic sugar surfactant alkyl polyglycoside from glucose and fatty alcohol. These products are used in washing and cleansing agents, as mild surfactants in cosmetic formulations as well as dispersing aids for technical applications. For personal care applications long chain alkyl polyglycosides or composites of special giycerides and alkylpolyglycosides were shown to be interesting emulsifiers and lipid layer enhancers. New emollients for light emulsions have been developed based on fatty alcohols, e.g. dialkyl ethers and dialkyl carbonates. In polymer applications derivatives of oils and fats, such as epoxides, polyols and dimerizations products based on unsaturated fatty acids, are used as plastic additives or components for composites or polymers like polyamides and polyurethanes. In the lubricant sector oleochemically-based fatty acid esters have proved to be powerful alternatives to conventional mineral oil products.