Abstract
Significant efforts are being made to replace mineral oil by renewable raw materials in technical products such as lubricating oils. Energy- and cost-effective production and refinement routes for such oils, e.g., fatty acid esters, are in progress. In this context, a feasibility study is performed into whether the application of membrane-aided separation procedures is suitable for the hydrophobic matrix of fatty acid methylesters (FAME). It is found that an enrichment of saturated acid esters from 28 to 51% is possible in just three steps for an unsaturated fatty acid ester matrix. The free fatty acids content can also be considerably reduced. This cleanup effect can be enhanced by the inclusion of a basic additive.