Catalysis and fine chemistry

Triglycerides from vegetable oils are very important raw and renewable materials for the preparation of products useful for foods, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, From the methanolysis or hydrolysis of that glycerides, methyl esters or fatty acids and glycerol are obtained. Furthermore it is demonstrated in this paper that solid and basic materials may replace the usual homogeneous catalysts with the same activity and selectivity but without formation of by-products and wastes. Moreover, in the presence of mesoporous solids with an accurate pore size the glycerol is selectively transformed to linear di and triglycerol; and a yield of more than 80% is obtained. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.