The old method of manufacturing stearine is rather cumbersome. Pressing has to be repeated thrice
in order to get rid of the unsaturated acids
otherwise the quality will be inferior This new method is to use soy bean oil or cotton seed oil and Chinese vegetable tallow singly or together as raw materials. After hydrogenation
spliting and distillation
stearine of good quality is obtained. The raw materials must be refined first so that the water content is under 0.1%
the acid number is under 0.5. They are then hydrogenated in a hydrogenator with good stirring
with 0.2-0.25% Ni as catalyst under 5-10 kg/cm2 pressure at 180-200℃. In about three hours
they are almost completely hydrogenated. Spliting conversion reaches about 97% after 6 hrs. The iodine number of the products after distillation is under 1. The product consists of stearic acid and palmitic acid in the ratio of 45:55 or 50:50. It therefore conforms to the specifications as required by the cosmetics industry. This method does not have to use the comparatively Jcarce animal tallows as raw materials.