TALL DIESEL COMPOSITION

Abstract

The present invention describes a tall diesel composition obtainable from a crude tall oil, said tall diesel composition comprising carboxylic acids in a range of 50-98 wt % and neutral components in a range of 2-50 wt %, wherein the tall diesel composition comprises 1-20 wt % rosin acids, 6-35 wt % saturated fatty acids and 59-74 wt % unsaturated fatty acids.

Claims

1. A tall diesel composition obtainable from a crude tall oil, said tall diesel composition comprising carboxylic acids in a range of 50-98 wt % and neutral components in a range of 2-50 wt %, wherein the tall diesel composition comprises 1-20 wt % rosin acids, 6-35 wt % saturated fatty acids and 59-74 wt % unsaturated fatty acids.

2. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition has a total fatty acid content in a range of 70-95 wt %.

3. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition comprises 15-20 wt % rosin acids.

4. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition also comprises one or more hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, ethers having a molecular weight in the range of 130-420 g/mole.

5. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the level of fatty alcohols in the tall diesel composition is maximum 3 wt %.

6. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the sum of various tall oil components with diterpenic structure other than rosin acids is in the range of 1-10 wt %.

7. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the total level of diterpenic alcohols, aldehydes, abietanes and pimaranes is in the range of 1-10 wt %, preferably in the range of 2-10 wt %, more preferably in the range of 5-10 wt %.

8. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition has a total acid number is in the range of 100-190 mg KOH/g, preferably in the range of 175-190 mg KOH/g.

9. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition has a boiling point in the range of 155-420 C.

10. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the total content of metal (Ca, Na, Mg, Fe, V, As, Si, Al, Ba, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, K, Zn) impurities is below 5 ppm.

11. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the content of squalene in the tall diesel composition is in a range of 0.5-1.5 wt %.

12. A method for the production of a tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises purifying a CTO (crude tall oil) to remove impurities and to produce a first refined tall oil stream; separation of water and volatile components from the first refined tall oil stream by using evaporation, to produce a second refined tall oil stream; separation of TOP (tall oil pitch) from the second refined tall oil stream, preferably in at least one TFE (thin film evaporator), more preferably in at least two TFEs in series, wherein the TOP is produced by condensation, and wherein there is also produced at least a third refined tall oil stream, substantially or totally free from TOP components; optional further treatment of said at least third refined tall oil stream, to produce the tall diesel composition said method comprising measuring the content of the marker squalene and perform optional further treatment of said at least third refined tall oil stream to ensure that the content of the marker squalene in the produced tall diesel composition is in a range of 0.5-1.5 wt %.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the optional further treatment comprises distillation.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the further treatment involves further fractionation and removal of at least one fraction from said at least third refined tall oil stream to ensure that the content of the marker squalene in the produced tall diesel composition is in a range of 0.5-1.5 wt %.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the third refined tall oil stream is deoxygenated in the presence of hydrogen gas.

16. Method comprising using a tall diesel composition according to claim 1 for hydrotreating of the tall diesel composition over a catalyst in the presence of hydrogen gas.

17. The tall diesel composition according to claim 1, wherein the tall diesel composition comprises at least 10 wt % rosin acids.

Description

EXAMPLE

[0033] A typical CTO with a composition exemplified in Table 1 was purified to remove various impurities, such as solids (salts, lignin, fibres, etc.), residual acid from CTO manufacturing, metals (various alkali-, alkali earth-, transition metals, etc.), water, etc. to obtain refined tall oil. Thereafter, the refined tall oil was released from occluded water, dissolved gases and light volatiles through processing in a thin-film evaporator to obtain a second refined oil stream. In the next step, the second refined oil was released from the fraction comprised of heavy tall oil components (high boiling points) to obtain a tall diesel composition according to one embodiment of the present invention and which is summarized in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Compositions of initial crude tall oil and tall diesel composition obtained according to the present invention. CTO Tall Diesel composition composition Acid value, mg KOH/g 139.3 177.1 Fatty Acids, wt. % 47.1 77.5 Saturated, wt. % 4.3 12.7 Unsaturated, wt. % 42.8 64.8 Rosin Acids, wt. % 24.6 10.4 Total carboxylic acids, wt. % 71.7 87.9 Neutrals, wt. % 27.4 12.1 Terpenes (mono-, di & tri-), wt. % 6.4 4.9 Di-terpenic (OH, CO), wt. % 3.5 6.7 Fatty alcohols, wt. % 1.5 0.5 Water, wt. % 1.0