Processes for the manufacture of secondary fatty alcohols, internal olefins and internal olefin sulfonates

1. A process P 1 for the manufacture of a secondary fatty alcohol, said process P 1 comprising:

synthesizing an internal ketone K 1 by a process P 0 comprising the decarboxylative ketonization reaction of a fatty acid, a fatty acid derivative, or a mixture thereof in a liquid phase with a decarboxylative ketonization catalyst comprising a metal compound in a reaction medium, wherein a ketone K 2 at liquid state, which is identical or similar to the internal ketone K 1 , is introduced into the reaction medium, and

subjecting the internal ketone K 1 to a hydrogenation reaction with hydrogen gas as hydrogenating agent to form the secondary fatty alcohol,

wherein the fatty acid and the fatty acid derivative independently comprise one or more compounds derived from a fatty acid cut, wherein the one or more compounds comprise a hydrocarbon chain having from 4 to 28 carbon atoms attached to a terminal carboxyl group.

2. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the ketone K 2 has a boiling point of at least 270° C.

3. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the difference between the boiling point of the ketone K 1 and the boiling point of the ketone K 2 is equal to or lower than 40° C.

4. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein a fatty acid is used as starting material and the fatty acid is a mixture of carboxylic acid selected from the group consisting of caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and mixtures thereof.

5. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction medium is substantially free of third solvents.

6. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the ketone K 2 is identical to ketone K 1 and has been synthesized in accordance with a previous process P 0 .

7. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the process P 0 comprises the steps of:

a) introducing in any order at least part of the ketone K 2 at liquid state, at least part of the metal compounds, at least part of the fatty acid, fatty acid derivative or mixture thereof into a reactor in order to synthesize the ketone K 1 , said reactor optionally containing before said introduction, a part of the metal compounds, and/or a part of the fatty acid, fatty acid derivative or mixture thereof and/or a part of the ketone K 2 and/or a part of the ketone K 1 ,

b) recovering the ketone K 1 optionally together with the ketone K 2 ,

c) optionally recycling at least part of the ketone K 1 and/or ketone K 2 and/or at least part of the metal compounds to step a).

8. The process P 1 according to claim 7 , wherein step a) of process P 0 comprises the steps of:

a1) introducing at least part of the ketone K 2 at liquid state, and at least part of the metal compounds into a reactor, said reactor being free of fatty acid(s) and fatty acid derivatives(s),

a2) introducing the fatty acid, fatty acid derivative or mixture thereof into the reactor, optionally with:

a part of the metal compounds, and/or

a part of the ketone K 2 .

9. The process P 1 according to claim 7 , wherein at step a) of process P 0 , the fatty acid, fatty acid derivative or mixture thereof is introduced sequentially or continuously into the reactor.

10. A process P 2 for the manufacture of an internal olefin, said process P 2 comprising:

manufacturing a secondary fatty alcohol by the process P 1 according to claim 1 , and

converting the secondary fatty alcohol into an internal olefin by a dehydration reaction.

11. A process P 3 for the manufacture of an internal olefin sulfonate, said process P 3 comprising:

manufacturing an internal olefin by the process P 2 according to claim 10 ,

sulfonating the internal olefin to form a sultone, and

subjecting the sultone to an alkaline hydrolysis, so as to form the internal olefin sulfonate.

12. The process P 1 according to claim 2 , wherein the ketone K 2 has a boiling point of at least 290° C.

13. The process P 1 according to claim 3 , wherein the difference between the boiling point of the ketone K 1 and the boiling point of the ketone K 2 is equal to or lower than 10° C.

14. The process P1 according to claim 1 , wherein the metal compound is selected from the group consisting of magnesium, iron and their oxides.

15. The process P1 according to claim 14 , wherein the metal compound is iron powder.

16. The process P 1 according to claim 14 , wherein the metal compound is FeO, Fe 3 O 4 , or Fe 2 O 3 .

17. The process P 1 according to claim 16 , wherein the total amount of fatty acid and fatty acid derivative added in the reaction medium for the decarboxylative ketonization reaction is such that the overall molar ratio of metal to carboxylic groups is in the range of from 1:6 to 1:99.

18. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the reaction medium inside the reactor is maintained from 285° C. to 350° C. during the decarboxylative ketonization reaction.

19. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein an intermediate metal carboxylate salt which is substantially soluble in the reaction medium is formed through an initial reaction between the fatty acid or its derivative with the metal compound.

20. The process P 1 according to claim 1 , wherein the process P 0 is a batch process.

21. The process P 1 according to claim 4 , wherein the mixture of fatty acids comprises a fatty acid cut obtained from coconut oil.