Fatty alcohols can be produced from either palm kernel oil or petrochemical feedstocks through chemical conversion and synthetic processes. Over 3 million tonnes are produced annually. Biological production methods are emerging as more environmentally friendly alternatives due to being metal-free, low energy, and mild conditions. Fatty alcohols from petrochemical sources involve reacting ethylene or alkene oligomers to form aldehydes, then hydrogenating to alcohols. Shell adjusts alkene mixtures to match market demand using metathesis before hydroformylation and hydrogenation. Primary Information Services categorizes, indexes, and monetizes reliable primary information to provide knowledgeable paid content.

1. Fatty
Alcohols
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2. Feedstock ?
The source of FA could be either palm kernel oil or petrochemicals.
Both the petrochemical and PKO
feedstocks are part of large and
complex supply chains

4. Fatty alcohol production
Choice of feedstock
At present, over 3 million tonnes of fatty alcohols are produced per
year from bio‐based and petroleum‐based feedstocks through
chemical conversion and synthetic processes.
• However, the environmental impact of current fatty alcohol
production processes has become a major concern, and several
bioprocesses have emerged as alternative methods for
synthesis.
• These biological processes are environmentally friendly due to
their metal‐free nature, low consumption of energy, and mild
reaction conditions.

6. Fatty Alcohols From petrochemical
sources
This process affords even-numbered alcohols:
Al(C2H5)3 + 18 C2H4 → Al(C14H29)3
Al(C14H29)3 + 3⁄2 O2 + 3⁄2 H2O → 3 HOC14H29 + 1⁄2 Al2O3
Alternatively ethylene can be oligomerized to give mixtures of alkenes, which are subjected
to hydroformylation, this process affording odd-numbered aldehyde, which is subsequently
hydrogenated. For example, from 1-decene, hydroformylation gives the C11 alcohol:
C8H17CH=CH2 + H2 + CO → C8H17CH2CH2CHO
C8H17CH2CH2CHO + H2 → C8H17CH2CH2CH2OH
The chain-length distribution in the initial mixture of alkene oligomers is adjusted so as to
more closely match market demand. Shell does this by means of an intermediate
metathesis reaction. The resultant mixture is fractionated and
hydroformylated/hydrogenated in a subsequent step.

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