Water → Sodium Behenate

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Behenic acid (87.6 kg, “Edenor C22-85R”, trade name, produced by Henkel Co.), 423 L of distilled water, 49.2 L of an aqueous NaOH solution in a concentration of 5 mol/L, and 120 L of tert-butyl alcohol were mixed. The mixture was reacted by stirring at 75° C. for one hour to obtain a sodium behenate solution. Separately, 206.2 L (pH 4.0) of an aqueous solution containing 40.4 kg of silver nitrate was prepared and kept at 10° C. A reactor containing 635 L of distilled water and 30 L of tert-butyl alcohol was kept at 30° C. and while thoroughly stirring, the entire amount of the sodium behenate solution obtained above and the entire amount of the aqueous silver nitrate solution prepared above were added at constant flow rates over the period of 93 minutes and 15 seconds and the period of 90 minutes, respectively. At this time, only the aqueous silver nitrate solution was added for the period of 11 minutes after the initiation of addition of the aqueous silver nitrate solution, then addition of the sodium behenate solution was started, and only the sodium behenate solution was added for the period of 14 minutes and 15 second after the completion of addition of the aqueous silver nitrate solution. During the addition, the temperature inside the reactor was kept at 30° C. and the outer temperature was controlled to make constant the liquid temperature. The piping in the system of adding the sodium behenate solution was kept warm by circulating hot water in the outer side of a double pipe, whereby the outlet liquid temperature at the distal end of the addition nozzle was adjusted to 75° C. The piping in the system of adding the aqueous silver nitrate solution was kept warm by circulating cold water in the outer side of a double pipe. The addition site of sodium behenate solution and the addition site of aqueous silver nitrate solution were symmetrically arranged centered around the stirring axis. Also, these addition sites were each adjusted to a height of not causing contact with the reaction solution.

Provenance & Evidence