as in a refineryWhat would be the resulting products if one would crack vegetable oil?
There are many vegetable fats and oils - olive oil, linseed oil, tung oil, coconut oil and so on. These oils are triglycerides, that is, they are esters of glycerin and a various fatty acids and also contain free fatty acids and diglycerides as well.
Fatty acids are carboxylic acids often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. Carboxylic acids as short as butyric acid (4 carbon atoms) are considered to be fatty acids, whereas fatty acids derived from natural fats and oils may be assumed to have at least 8 carbon atoms, e.g., caprylic acid (octanoic acid). Fatty acids may have 22 or more carbon atoms.
Cracking is the process of breaking up large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller and more useful bits. This is achieved by using high pressures and temperatures without a catalyst, or lower temperatures and pressures in the presence of a catalyst.
For the most part, long-chain fatty acids are used ';as is'; because there is little to be gained by breaking them down into smaller hydrocarbon molecules which are already available from other sources and from shorter chain fatty acids
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