Premium
Refining of Plant Oils to Chemicals by Olefin Metathesis
Author(s) -
Chikkali Samir,
Mecking Stefan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201107645
Subject(s) - biorefining , refining (metallurgy) , olefin metathesis , catalysis , organic chemistry , metathesis , chemistry , olefin fiber , biochemical engineering , chemical industry , biorefinery , engineering , raw material , polymerization , polymer
Plant oils are attractive substrates for the chemical industry. Their scope for the production of chemicals can be expanded by sophisticated catalytic conversions. Olefin metathesis is an example, which also illustrates generic issues of “biorefining” to chemicals. Utilization on a large scale requires high catalyst activities, which influences the choice of the metathesis reaction. The mixture of different fatty acids composing a technical‐grade plant oil substrate gives rise to a range of products. This decisively determines possible process schemes, and potentially provides novel chemicals and intermediates not employed to date.