What is the difference between fats oils and waxes

The fats, oils and waxes sink to the bottom of the vat and can be run off. Wet rendering can be preferable as it produces higher quality extracts, but it is more time consuming. Other natural waxes, including beeswax, candelilla wax, carnauba wax, berry wax, sunflower wax, Myrica fruit wax, rice bran wax, lanolin and jojoba oil, have distinct processing methods. Beeswax is extracted by melting the combs using either boiling water, steam or heat; it can then be separated either by skimming off, running off or centrifugal extraction.

In cosmetics, natural derivatives, made from oils and fats, including beef tallow, rapeseed, soybean, coconut palm and oil palm, and the wax lanolin, are incredibly useful raw materials. They can better harness the desired properties of their parent materials, or can provide new functions which were previously unavailable. In order to create derivatives of oils, fats or waxes, they must first be broken down into their component parts.

Once separated, they can be utilised without further processing, or can undergo various modifications, either being recombined in a different configuration, or first modified then recombined. The production of natural derivatives from fats and oils is achieved via various processes, including high pressure splitting, esterification, hydrogenation and ethoxylation.

This enables the water to partially dissolve in the fat and hydrolysis to take place. The fat is split from triglyceride to diglyceride, to monoglyceride and then to fatty acid, with glycerine produced as a by-product. Once separated, the fatty acids can be split into groups of different carbon chain lengths using fractional distillation, and unsaturated and saturated fatty acids can be separated by fractional crystallisation using an organic solvent or hydrophilisation.

The process of wax splitting is very similar; sodium hydroxide solution is used in place of water, with which the fatty acid of the wax ester reacts and forms a soap. When the fatty acid reacts with the sodium hydroxide it splits from the fatty alcohol, which is removed by vacuum distillation.

The remaining soap is then split using a mineral acid and the fatty acid floats to the top of the solution where it is removed. The hydrogen reacts with the carboxyl group producing a fatty alcohol plus either water, or alcohol respectively. Ethoxylation is an important process for the production of many natural oil and fat derivatives.

It is a condensation reaction in which ethylene oxide reacts with reactive hydrogen molecules in the hydroxyl groups of fatty acids, fatty alcohols and their esters.

Petrochemical-derived oils, fats and waxes can be found in the INCIs of countless cosmetic and toiletry products. These raw materials comprise petrolatum, paraffin oil, paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax and ozokerite. All are derived via the same method with the exception of ozokerite, a naturally occurring mineral wax which is mined, extracted by boiling in water, refined using sulfuric acid and then deodorised with charcoal. The other materials are derived through the fractional distillation of petroleum.

An intermediate product in microcrystalline wax production, petrolatum is separated from paraffinic residual oil, via solvent dewaxing and filtration. Otherwise known as Vaseline, petrolatum comprises mineral waxes paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax and mineral oils paraffin oils as a colloidal system, with the waxes forming the solid external phase and the oils the liquid internal phase.

Paraffin wax and microcrystalline wax are components of petrolatum. Paraffin wax, like petrolatum, is colourless, odourless and tasteless. It has an amorphous structure containing microscopic crystals, which can prove advantageous over the use of paraffin wax, for cosmetic and toiletry products where the crystallisation characteristic of paraffin wax would be a problem.

Ozokerite is chemically and physically identical to microcrystalline wax, and so shares the same properties. All of these petrochemical waxes are primarily formed of straight chain paraffins with carbon chains of atoms long.

Silicones are synthetic polymers that comprise a silicon-oxygen backbone with organic groups attached to the silicon atoms by C-Si bonds. The most commonly used silicones have methyl groups attached along the backbone. Figure 5 shows the components of these silicones. A variety of silicones are used in cosmetics applications including cyclic, linear, or organo-functional polydimethylsiloxanes PDMS , as well as silicone elastomer dispersions and resins. To achieve separation, a carbo-thermic smelting process is employed, in which the reduction of sand at very high temperature releases the silicon.

First, the -OH red bond on the acid is broken and the -H red bond on the alcohol is also broken. Both join to make HOH, a water molecule. Secondly, the oxygen of the alcohol forms a bond green to the acid at the carbon with the double bond oxygen. This forms the ester functional group. This process is carried out three times to make three ester groups and three water molecules.

As might be expected from the properties of the fatty acids, fats have a predominance of saturated fatty acids, and oils are composed largely of unsaturated acids. Thus, the melting points of triglycerides reflect their composition, as shown by the following examples. Since fats are valued over oils by some Northern European and North American populations, vegetable oils are extensively converted to solid triglycerides e. Crisco by partial hydrogenation of their unsaturated components.

Some of the remaining double bonds are isomerized to trans in this operation. These saturated and trans-fatty acid glycerides in the diet have been linked to long-term health issues such as atherosclerosis. Triglycerides having three identical acyl chains, such as tristearin and triolein above , are called "simple", while those composed of different acyl chains are called "mixed". The hydrogenation of vegetable oils to produce semisolid products has had unintended consequences. Although the hydrogenation imparts desirable features such as spreadability, texture, "mouth feel," and increased shelf life to naturally liquid vegetable oils, it introduces some serious health problems.

These occur when the cis-double bonds in the fatty acid chains are not completely saturated in the hydrogenation process. The catalysts used to effect the addition of hydrogen isomerize the remaining double bonds to their trans configuration. These unnatural trans-fats appear to to be associated with increased heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, as well as immune response and reproductive problems. Steven Farmer Sonoma State University. Key Terms Make certain that you can define, and use in context, the key terms below.

Commercial oil production was started in the s. Difference Between Wax And Oil. Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. MLA 8 Chandrasekaran, Punalur. Name required. Email required. Please note: comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

Written by : Punalur Chandrasekaran. User assumes all risk of use, damage, or injury. You agree that we have no liability for any damages. Wax Waxes are non edible, low melting point solids, available in synthetic and natural forms. Oil Oil is defined as any neutral, non-polar chemical substance in the form of a viscous liquid at normal temperatures, having hydrophobic and lipophilic properties. Author Recent Posts. Punalur Chandrasekaran. Latest posts by Punalur Chandrasekaran see all.

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