Improved Methods Of Processing In Tallow Industry

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 70, 28 March 1949, Page 5

Improved Methods Of Processing In Tallow Industry

One of New Zealand’s oldest oil and fat industries is the manufacture of candles. In the 1880’s candles from processed tallow, which compared very favourably with the imported article and won several prizes, were made in Dunedin; but modern illumination and the paraf-fin-wax candle might suggest that the processing of tallow for technical purposes would be almost moribund and hardly of interest to the scientist bent on applied research. Products derived from processing tallow, however, are used in many industries today, and the Fats Research Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research have recently devised, an improvement in production. Processed tallow yields two different products, generally known as “stearine” and “oleine.” Stearine is used today in the manufacture of cosmetics and shaving soaps and creams, and as a filler in rubber. Because of its high melting point, it is also made into special candles and tapers, and the wax matches so popular in this country are produced from this material. Some of the uses of oleine are the making of textile soaps for wool scouring, and as a wool lubricant in spinning. Both products, in the form of the so-called metallic soaps,-find extensive application in the manufacture of textiles, paints and lubricants, and, they are also used in the pharmaceutical industry. *

Long Process The process is to split the tallow into the two components of fatty acids and glycerine; then the crude fatty acids are distilled to obtain a pure, light-coloured material, which is next separated by a hydraulic process into the solid and lic_Uid portions, that is, the.stearine and the oleine. As at present carried out, this is a long and awkward process. The Fats Research Laboratory closely investingated one of its stages—the distillation of the fatty acids—and the Director of the Fats Research Laboratory, Dr F. B. Shorland, suggested the application of the principle of the short-path vacuum distillation. The initial laboratory tests were so successful that a pilot plant is now being constructed to put this idea into practice. It is hoped that the new distilling method, besides making the manufacture of the tallow derivatives easier, will improve their quality and increase the yield. This is more than an immediate advantage since the beef and mutton tallow of technical grade is available in large quantities, and the deevlopment of stearine and oleine industry could be a contribution to the export trade.