GB333904A - Improvements in the recovery of organic acids from oxidation products of solid paraffin and like waxes - Google Patents

Abstract

333,904. Johnson, J. Y., (I. G. Farbenindustrie Akt.-Ges.). March 14, 1929. Fatty acids, purifying &c.-A process for isolating fatt acids from the crude oxidation products obtained by the destructive oxidation of waxes, e.g. paraffin, montan, or beeswax, consists in treating the products at room or slightly elevated temperature with an alkali in amount sufficient to neutralize exactly the free acids contained therein, preferably drying the neutralized mass, and after removing unsaponifiable material and esters by extraction with a solvent, e.g. benzine, decomposing the resulting pure salts with a mineral acid. The alkali employed comprises the oxides, hydroxides, or carbonates of alkali or alkaline earth metals including magnesium, in aqueous suspension or in the anhydrous state. The pure salts, prior to decomposition, may be heated to remove traces of the solvent used for extraction. In one example, 50 parts of an oxidation product of paraffin wax, having an acid value of 221, a saponification value of 285, and a content of 13 per cent of unsaponifiable, material, are stirred at 60‹ C. with 10.5 parts of anhydrous sodium carbonate until the mass has become solid. The dried sodium salt is treated at 40‹ C. with benzine (boiling point 60‹ to 100 C.), the salt freed from the last trace of solvent by heating, and then decomposed by means of mineral acid. Specifications 315,813 and 324,538, [both in Class 2 (iii), Dyes &c.], are referred to.