Fatty alcohol is aliphatic alcohol with 8 to 22 carbon atomic chains. Fatty alcohol usually has an even number of carbon atoms and a hydroxyl group attached to the end of the carbon chain.

One of the raw materials of surfactants used in detergents. The general formula is ROH.The R of alcohol used in detergent is usually a hydrocarbon group of C12~C18. The high carbon fatty alcohologen is amphiphilic, that is, there are hydrophobic groups such as hydrocarbon chains, and there are hydrophilic groups such as hydroxyl groups.

Due to the low solubility in water, it is necessary to add hydrophilic groups or convert hydroxyl groups into sulfate groups to achieve the necessary hydrophilic-oil equilibrium value.When fatty alcohol derivatives have sufficient hydrophilic groups to dissolve in water and form aggregates (micelles), they are surfactants.For example, dodecanol is insoluble in water, but when it becomes sodium dodecanol sulfate, due to the addition of a sulfate group (- SO3-), its water solubility becomes better and it can form micelles in water. When a certain concentration is reached, it shows very good surface activity. People have utilized this characteristic to produce a variety of surfactants with various excellent properties using fatty alcohols as raw materials.

 The Development Process of Fatty Alcohol

Fatty alcohols the earliest anionic detergents which prepared from whale wax, and the resulting mixed fatty alcohols were sulfonated and neutralized to form sulfates. Subsequently, coconut oil, palm oil, and butter with abundant sources were developed and utilized as raw materials. The fatty acids obtained from hydrolysis are reduced to alcohols. Commonly referred to natural fatty alcohols.After the development of petrochemical industry, fatty alcohols produced from petroleum products are called synthetic fatty alcohols. High pressure hydrogenation, Ziegler process and carbonyl synthesis are important methods to produce fatty alcohols. If the hair mask contains unsaturated fatty alcohol, can repair and nourish hair. Adding fatty alcohol to lip gloss can enhance the smoothness of the product during use.

 Production Methods of Fatty Alcohol

1. High-pressure hydrogenation method

Fatty alcohol was obtained from animal and plant oils by high-pressure hydrogenation. In industry, the raw oil is first pretreated, alcohololysis (i.e. transesterification) into fatty acids and then hydrogenated.Fatty acids can also be hydrogenated directly or esterified to produce alcohols. Direct hydrogenation of fatty acids to fatty alcohols requires high material quality. The chemical equation of fatty acid hydrogenation to fatty alcohol is as follows: RCOOH+2H2 -- →RCH2OH+H2O. The chemical equation of fatty acid ester hydrogenation to fatty alcohol is as follows: RCOOR '+2H2 -- →RCH2OH+R' OH. High-pressure hydrogenation method has fixed bed method and suspended bed method, but its basic process flow is the same.

2. Ziegler method

Using ethylene as raw material and the action of trialkylaluminum, aluminum alcohol compounds can be prepared through chain growth and oxidation. Afterwards, aluminum alcohol compounds are hydrolyzed, neutralized, and fractionated to obtain fatty alcohols. This method was created by K. Ziegler in 1954, and was first put into production by the Continental Oil Company in 1962. The product is a straight-chain dicarbon alcohol. The main reactions of this production method include the following steps:

Preparation of triethyl aluminum (hydrogenation and addition reaction):

Al+H2+2Al (C2H5) 3- → 3Al (C2H5) 2H

3Al (C2H5) 2H+3C2H4- → 3Al (C2H5) 3

Preparation of alkyl aluminum (chain growth reaction):

Al (C2H5) 3+3nC2H4- → R3Al

Preparation of aluminum alkoxide (oxidation reaction):

R3Al+O2- → Al (OR) 3

Fatty alcohol production (hydrolysis reaction):

Al (OR) 3+H2SO4- → Al2 (SO4) 3+3ROH or

Al (OR) 3+H2O - → Al2O3+3ROH

3. Carbonyl synthesis method

Aldehydes are synthesized from olefins, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen under catalyst and pressure conditions. Aldehydes have one more carbon atom than raw olefins. Aldehydes are hydrogenated to produce fatty alcohols. The aldehyde reaction (OXO reaction) of olefin was discovered by German chemist O. Leren in 1938.

The OXO reaction is as follows:

Aldehyde reaction (formaldehyde or hydroformylation)

Application and Market Development of Fatty Alcohol Products

Natural higher fatty alcohol is the basic raw material of fine chemical products such as detergents, surfactants, plasticizers, etc. There are thousands of fine chemical products produced from it, which are widely used in chemical industry, petroleum, metallurgy, textile, machinery , mining, construction, plastics, rubber, leather, paper, transportation, food, medicine and health, daily chemicals and agriculture.

Many derivatives can be produced from fatty alcohols. Surfactants of  alcohol series are the fastest developing products among various surfactants since the 1980s. As a detergent active substance, it has excellent properties such as strong decontamination ability, good compatibility, low foam, easy biodegradation, hard water resistance and good low-temperature water washing performance. It has been gradually replacing linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS ) and dodecylbenzene sulfonate as the third generation of detergent raw materials. The most representative varieties here are AEO3~9 synthesized from fatty alcohols and ethylene oxide, which can also be sulfonated to generate AES. These alcohols are surfactants with wide applications and high demand, and are closely related to the improvement of daily life. The real and potential markets are vast, thus providing a relatively broad market for the production of fatty alcohols, especially natural fatty alcohol imitations.

Plastic additives are auxiliary raw materials for the plastic industry, and the additive industry has developed with the development of the plastic industry. The rapid development of China's plastic industry is well-known. In 1985, the world consumed 13 million tons of various plastic additives, and plasticizers were one of the largest plastic additives used. Currently, the production capacity of plasticizers abroad has exceeded 4.5 million tons, and China's production capacity of plasticizers has exceeded 500000 tons.

Among the plasticizers, the output of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and dioctyl phthalate (DOP) plays a major role. In addition to the raw materials of phthalic anhydride, butanol and octanol are also the main raw materials in production. At present, more than 300,000 tons of butanol and octanol are consumed in China every year to produce these two plasticizers. However, the carbon chains of butanol and octanol are relatively short, and the plasticizers produced by them are far from meeting the development needs of the plastic processing industry in terms of heat resistance, weather resistance, and electrical insulation properties. Currently, high-carbon chain fatty alcohols such as C10, C12, C14, C16, C18, etc. are being tried to replace butanol and octanol, which can produce plastic products with excellent heat resistance, weather resistance, and electrical insulation performance, promoting the expansion of plastic applications. Therefore, the application of high-carbon fatty alcohols in the plastic plasticizer industry are also quite promising. Morover, Fatty alcohol is one of material of antifoam and defoamer. 

The application of natural fatty alcohols in daily chemical industry has more advantages over chemical synthetic alcohols. Even though various physical and chemical quality indicators are the same, people still prefer natural alcohols, which has become a popular "green" trend today. Therefore, natural fatty alcohols are ideal raw materials in the cosmetics industry, such as the production of liquid and creamy soaps, toothpaste, and cosmetic creams.