Lauric acid Production Process

1.Extracted from coconut oil, Litsea cubeba seed oil, palm seed oil, mountain pepper seed oil, camphor seed oil and other kernel oils. Separate the essential oil components under high temperature and high pressure, and then rectify under reduced pressure to separate and refine the fatty acids. There are four main methods for obtaining lauric acid from vegetable oil: one is direct fatty acid distillation; the other is fatty acid methyl ester distillation, the third is solvent extraction, and the fourth is freezing crystallization. The direct fatty acid distillation method usually cracks the triglyceride fatty acid ester structure of the oil into fatty acids, and then performs vacuum distillation to obtain the required lauric acid. In order to convert fats into fatty acids, saponification acidification, pressurized catalytic cracking, atmospheric catalytic cracking, high-pressure hydrolysis, etc. have been used in the industry. Among them, the saponification acidification method is the oldest, high cost, and low efficiency. At present, most manufacturers use high-pressure and high-temperature hydrolysis. This method has a simple process and can obtain fat, fatty acid and glycerin, and can obtain the desired product through vacuum distillation. Fatty acid methyl esterification method is to first convert oil into fatty acid methyl ester, obtain methyl laurate by distillation, and then acidify and dry it by soap method to obtain lauric acid. The methyl esterification process can reduce the distillation temperature by 30-40°C, can reduce the breaking vibration of heat-sensitive substances, avoid the generation of thermal polymers, etc., has good thermal stability, and has little corrosion to equipment, which can reduce investment.

1)Coconut oil

The main component of coconut oil is C8~C18 fatty acids, which contain up to 45~80% of lauric acid. Many countries use it as a raw material to produce lauric acid, but the output of coconut oil in China is very small. The method of producing lauric acid from coconut oil has mostly adopted high-temperature and high-pressure hydrolysis: adding coconut oil, water and catalyst into an autoclave, heating to about 250°C and pressure reaching about 50 kg/cm2, at this time coconut oil is cracked Into various fatty acids and glycerin, and then use distillation method to obtain the required lauric acid. In large-scale production plants, a more advanced high-pressure continuous hydrolysis method is adopted.

2)Litsea cubeba kernel oil

Litsea cubeba is widely grown in various provinces south of the Yangtze River in China. It is a wild tree fruit. Litsea cubeba fruit contains a large amount of citral aromatic oil, which is an important raw material for flavoring and synthesizing ionone and vitamin A. Litsea cubeba kernel oil can be squeezed out from the core of the fruit. Litsea cubeba kernel oil is composed of C10~C18 fatty acid compounds, in which the content of lauric acid is 45-60%. The process of preparing lauric acid from Litsea cubeba kernel oil is: Litsea cubeba kernel oil-pickling-hydrolysis-fractionation-squeezing-rectification-crystallization-crushing-finished product.

3)Palm kernel oil

The largest palm oil producer in the world is Malaysia, which accounts for more than half of the world's total output. Palm kernel oil is composed of C6-C18 fatty acids, usually containing lauric acid The amount is 46-51%.

4)Mountain pepper seed oil

Mountain pepper belongs to Lauraceae and is a deciduous tree. The mountain pepper drupe is spherical, the fruit is green at first, and black when mature. Mountain pepper kernel oil contains more than 30% lauric acid.

5)Other vegetable oils

such as palm kernel oil, rubbing tree seed oil, tree seed oil, etc. also contain twelve-carbon fatty acids, which can be used to make lauric acid.

6)Extract lauric acid

Hydrotreating the remaining C12 fraction (containing large basins of dodecenoic acid) after extracting lauric acid can convert dodecenoic acid into lauric acid. Hydrogenation can be carried out under normal pressure, the conversion rate can reach above 86%, and the iodine value can be reduced from 5 to about 6.6. This method does not require catalysts and high temperature and high pressure equipment.