Fatty alcohols from methyl ester hydrogenolysis

High-pressure hydrogenolysis of a fatty acid methyl ester over a copper-chromite catalyst to the corresponding fatty alcohol plus methanol byproduct, the route used by natural-fatty-alcohol producers such as Oxiteno. Modeled with methyl palmitate as the ester feed (the C16 member of the coconut/palm-kernel-derived ester slate these plants actually run); a flash removes unreacted hydrogen for recycle and a partial-condenser column recovers methanol overhead from the crude fatty alcohol. The column runs a vapor distillate because the flash liquid still carries dissolved hydrogen, and its distillate rate is set to the feed's light-component fraction -- ask for more overhead than there is light material and the column can only meet the spec by dragging fatty alcohol up with it.