PATENTS

      1487.  ------.  [I. G. FARBENINDUSTRIE, A. G.]  [Production of Edible Fats and Oils.]  German Patent Appl. I 68,798. OZ 12,569, filed Feb. 3, 1941 (Cl. IV a-53 h).  FIAT Reel 164, frames 3,343-3,348; PB 25,608: Meyer Transl. PC-S-IV, Wax Oxidation. vol. 3, chap. 52, 1949. p. 41.

            In preparing edible fats and oils by esterficcation of fatty acid mixtures, which have been prepared by the oxidation of paraffin hydrocarbons and extensively freed of nonacidic constituents, fatty acid mixtures are used, which are as free as possible of dicarboxylic acid and branched chain fatty acids.  It is also best to remove any fatty acids that contain O besides the carbonyl group.  Example: Paraffin gatsch, obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of CO, is oxidized with air and the oxidation products saponified.  The soaps are heated to 300º and the unsaponified constituents distilled off.  The soaps are then split with mineral acid and the mixture of the free fatty acids distilled.  The C₁₀-C₂₂ fraction of the fatty acids is then freed of the dicarboxylic acids and a part of the hydroxy and keto acids by washing with dilute NaOH and then by H₂O.  The refined fatty acids are then freed of the branched-chain fatty acids by the method of German Patent 744,136 (abs. 1847).  An edible fat, harmless to the human organism, is obtained from the refined fatty acid mixture by esterfication with glycerin.