Separation of Oleic Acid from Fatty Acid Impurities

A method of oleic acid purification is described. The method consists of the following five steps: 1) cooling of the sample to 4°C for a partial separation of palmitic acid by crystallization, 2) distillation at reduced pressure (0.8 mmHg) for removal of lauric and myristic acids, 3) crystallization of stearic and palmitic acids from acetone at -25°C, 4) separation of oleic acid from palmitoleic and linoleic acids by oleic acid crystallization from aqueous methanol solutions at −10°C, 5) reduced pressure (0.5 mmHg) distillation of the resulting oleic acid sample for removal of water and methanol. By utilizing the procedure described above, a sample containing only 82% oleic acid was refined to a product containing 98.7–98.9% oleic acid.