» United States Patent: 6,846,916

» Obaje: January 25, 2005

Trans-acidolysis process for the preparation of carbohydrate fatty-acid esters

Abstract

The present invention relates to a low temperature, solvent-free trans-acidolysis process for preparing surface-active carbohydrate fatty-acid esters comprising the steps of: (e) reacting acylated carbohydrate with free fatty acid in the presence of acid catalyst, under reduced pressure, and without adding any solvent; (f) decolorizing and separating the reaction mixture obtained in step (a) into unreacted fatty acid layer and a carbohydrate fatty-ester layer; (g) precipitating out the unreacted acylated carbohydrate; (h) librating the hydroxyl groups by partial hydrolysis in the presence of an acid catalyst; (i) removing the unreacted free fatty acids and unreacted carbohydrate esters of low molecular-weight carboxylic acids during purification, and recycling the removed unreacted free fatty acids and carbohydrate esters to the starting reactant mixture.

• Inventors : Obaje; Olobo Jonathan (Singapore, SG)
• Assignee : URAH Resources (Nigeria) Ltd. (Ayangba, NG)
• Appl. No. : 050402
• Filed : January 15, 2002

• Feb 24, 2001[SG] : 200100727-7
• Current U.S. Class : 536/18.6; 536/18.5; 536/115; 536/116; 536/119; 536/120; 536/124
• Intern'l Class : C07G 003/00; C07H015/00; C07H017/00
• Field of Search : 536/18.5,18.6,115,116,119,120,124