The chemistry of naturally occurring long chain unsaturated compounds

Abstract

[From Introduction, p. 3] Raw marine oils are subject to considerable variation in composition with season and are moreover very unbalanced oils for direct use in the paint industry. Further refining is undertaken chiefly by Messrs Marine Oil Refiners of Africa Ltd., whose factory is situated at Simonstown. In their plant marine oils and others are treated by the Solexol process involving counter current extraction of the oil with liquid propane in a tower over which a temperature gradient is maintained. The process achieves the removal of a large proportion of the relatively saturated glycerides, the natural antitioxidants, and the relatively highly unsaturated components, all of which are detrimental to the eventual formation of good paint films. The segregated marine oil from the Solexol process is then bodied or polymerised at high temperatures to yield a "drying oil" which is used as a substitute for bodied linseed oil in paints. The chemical reactions taking place during the polymerisation and drying of these oils are of an exemely complex nature, and for their understanding it is necessary to have an accurate knowledge of the chemical nature of the component fatty acids in the natural glycerides ... The term "marine oils" in this work should be understood to mean marine fish body oils, marine mammal oils being excluded from consideration.