Chemical Transformations of Fatty Acids in the Hydrolysis of Triglycerides. Selective Isolation of Oleic Acid from Rapeseed Oil under Sub- and Supercritical Water Conditions

The hydrolysis of rapeseed oil in sub- and supercritical water ( T = 573–653 K, p = 30 MPa) has been studied using a batch setup. Unlike traditional hydrolysis, the hydrothermal process involves in situ change of the fatty acid composition as a result of the transformation of linoleic acid to oleic acid, and there is the possibility of selective isolation of the latter with a purity sufficient for its use for technical purposes without special purification. A stepwise mechanism of the hydrothermal process has been proposed on the basis of analysis of transformation products of individual linoleic acid.