Process for the non-degenerative distillation of fatty acids

Claim 1

In a process for the non-degenerative distillation of C 6-24 -fatty acids which are obtained by hydrolytically splitting natural fats and oils or by synthetic processes, removing water by thermally drying the crude product under reduced pressure, subjecting the dried and heated crude product to fractional evaporation in falling-film evaporators, in the presence of 0 to 10% by weight of the total feed of superheated steam, and condensing the resulting various vapor fractions in at least two condensers, the improvement comprising: (a) conducting the thermal drying process at a temperature of 60° to 80° C. under a pressure of from 90 to 100 mbars; (b) heating the dried crude product in a first falling-film evaporator to a temperature of 212° to 224° C. under a pressure of 5 to 20 mbars to evaporate the low-boiling fraction of said dried crude product, leaving a liquid residue; (c) distilling said liquid residue, with recirculation distillation, to completion; (d) passing the vapors from said distillation through a rectification column having baffles which show a pressure loss of at most 1 mbar per meter of packing height at a comparable air flow velocity of at least 2 m/s, said column comprising an upper separation stage having at least one separation sub-stage and a lower separation stage having at least three separation sub-stages, condensing the low-boiling constituents of said vapors in said upper stage as main runnings; (e) condensing the remaining vapors in two sequential outlet condensers; (f) returning the condensate from the first said outlet condenser to the head of the rectification column; (g) drawing off said main runnings through an outlet as a sidestream from said rectification column; (h) returning a partial return flow from a sidestream beneath said outlet for the main runnings; and (i) continuously removing a small quantity of residue from a second, circulation-type falling-film evaporator.