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Vegetable oil raw materials
Author(s) -
Pryde E. H.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02667427
Subject(s) - ricinoleic acid , erucic acid , crambe , linseed oil , castor oil , vegetable oil , raw material , coconut oil , tallow , chemistry , food science , rapeseed , botany , biology , organic chemistry
Vegetable oils that are important to the chemical industry include both edible and industrial oils, which contribute 24% and 13.5%, respectively, compared to 55% for tallow, to the preparation of surfactants, coatings, plasticizers, and other products based on fats and oils. Not only the oils themselves but also the fatty acids recovered from soapstock represent a several billion pound resource. Coconut oil is imported to the extent of 700‐1,000 million pounds per year. Its uses are divided about equally between edible and industrial applications. Safflower oil has a relatively small production, but 15–25% of the oil goes into industrial products. Soybean oil, the major edible oil of the world, is produced in the United States at the rate of 11,000 million pounds per year with more than 500 million pounds going into industrial uses, representing 5% of the total production. Castor oil is imported to the extent of about 100 million pounds per year. Linseed oil production has declined drastically over the last 25 years but still amounts to about 100 million pounds per year. Oiticica and tung oils are imported in lesser amounts than castor and linseed oils. New crops that have industrial potential, as well as the traditional vegetable oil crops, include seed oils from crambe, Limnanthes, Lesquerella, Dimorphotheca, Vernonia , and Cuphea plants. Crambe oil contains up to 65% erucic acid. Oil from Limnanthes contains more than 95% of fatty acids above C 18 . Lesquerella oil contains hydroxy unsaturated acids resembling ricinoleic acid from castor oil. Dimorphotheca oil contains a conjugated dienol system. Vernonia oils contain as much as 80% epoxy acids. The Cuphea oils contain a number of short chain fatty acids. Of these, crambe, Limnanthes , and Vernonia are probably the most developed agronomically. Competition between vegetable oils and petrochemicals for the traditional fats and oil markets has been marked over the past 25 years, but prices for petrochemicals have accelerated at a greater rate than those for vegetable oils; and, it is now appropriate to reexamine the old as well as the new markets for fatty acids.