Water → Sodium Behenate

Participants

Reaction Steps

In an amount of 87.6 kg of behenic acid (Edenor C22-85R, trade name, manufactured by Henkel Co.), 423 L of distilled water and 120 L of tert-butanol stirred at 75° C. in a reaction tank were added with 49.2 L of 5 mol/L aqueous solution of NaOH over 5 minutes, and allowed to react for 60 minutes to obtain a solution of sodium behenate. Separately, 206.2 L of an aqueous solution containing 40.4 kg of silver nitrate (pH 4.0) was prepared and kept at 10° C. A reaction vessel containing 635 L of distilled water and 30 L of tert-butanol was maintained at 30° C., and added with the whole volume of the aqueous silver nitrate solution with stirring at a constant flow rate. After 7 minutes, it was started to add the whole volume of the sodium behenate solution at a constant flow rate. The addition times of the aqueous silver nitrate solution and the sodium behenate solution in this operation were 60 minutes and 62 minute, respectively. Therefore, during the last 9 minutes, only the sodium behenate solution was added. The mixture was left with stirring for 20 minutes as it was to lower the temperature to 25° C. Then, the solid content was separated by suction filtration and washed with water until electric conductivity of the filtrate became 30 μS/cm. The solid content obtained as described above was stored as a wet cake without being dried.

Provenance & Evidence