TRANSESTERIFICATION OF VEGETABLE-OILS - A REVIEW

The transesterification of vegetable oils with methanol as well as the main uses of the fatty acid methyl esters are reviewed. The general a spects of this process and the applicability of different types of cat alysts (acids, alkaline metal hydroxides, alkoxides and carbonates, en zymes and non-ionic bases, such as amines, amidines, guanidines and tr iamino(imino)phosphoranes) are described. Special attention is given t o guanidines, which can be easily heterogenized on organic polymers. H owever, the anchored catalysts show leaching problems. New strategies to obtain non-leaching guanidine-containing catalysts are proposed. Fi nally, several applications of fatty acid esters, obtained by transest erification of vegetable oils, are described.