Separation of wool fatty acid

Claim 1

In a method for separating wool fatty acid from wool alcohol by treating a saponified wool wax containing a soap of said wool fatty acid with a heterogeneous solvent system consisting essentially of an aqueous phase and a water-immiscible solvent for said wool alcohol to extract said wool alcohol into said water-immiscible solvent, phase separating the resultant admixture into a supernatant consisting essentially of wool alcohol dissolved in said water-immiscible solvent and said aqueous phase containing said soap of wool fatty acid and recovering respective phases therefrom, the improvement which comprises: treating a saponified wool wax containing said wool alcohol and a binary metal soap of said wool fatty acid with said heterogeneous solvent system, said binary metal soap being formed with an alkali metal and a multivalent metal present in said saponified wool wax, the equivalent ratio of said multivalent metal being less than 0.9 relative to said alkali metal and greater than 0.5 relative to said wool wax.

Claim 9

A method for removing free wool fatty acid from crude wool wax containing at least 5% by weight of said wool fatty acid therein which comprises a. neutralizing said free fatty acid present in said crude wax with an alkali metal hydroxide, carbonate or lower alkoxide and a multivalent metal hydroxide, oxide or water-soluble salt to produce a binary metal soap of said wool fatty acid, the amount of said multivalent compound being greater than 0.3 equivalent relative to said free wool fatty acid present in said crude wax but less than 0.9 equivalent relative to said alkali metal compound; b. treating the resultant mixture with a heterogeneous solvent system consisting essentially of an aqueous phase and a water-immiscible solvent for pure wool wax to extract said pure wool wax into said water-immiscible solvent; and c. separating the resultant aqueous phase containing said binary metal soap from the supernatant consisting essentially of purified wool wax dissolved in said water-immiscible solvent.

Claim 10

A method for removing free wool fatty acid from crude wool wax containing at least 5% by weight of said wool fatty acid therein which comprises a. neutralizing said free fatty acid present in said crude wax with an alkali metal hydroxide, carbonate or lower alkoxide and a multivalent metal hydroxide, oxide or water-soluble salt to produce a binary metal soap of said wool fatty acid, the amount of said multivalent compound being greater than 0.3 equivalent relative to said free wool fatty acid present in said crude wax but less than 0.9 equivalent relative to said alkali metal compound; b. treating the resultant mixture with a heterogeneous solvent system consisting essentially of an aqueous phase and a water-immiscible solvent for pure wool wax to extract said pure wool wax into said water-immiscible solvent; and c. separating the resultant aqueous phase containing said binary metal soap from the supernatant consisting essentially of purified wool wax dissolved in said water-immiscible solvent.