Tall Oil is produced from the liquid rosin of coniferous pine trees and is largely produced as a byproduct of paper production during the Kraft process of wood pulp processing. Its composition consists of the three primary components: resin acids, unsaponifiable, and fatty acids (mainly palmitic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid). Tall Oil Fatty Acid (TOFA) is produced by factional distillation whereby the rosin content is reduced to anywhere between 10 to 1%.
TOFA is useful for many applications including paints and coatings, adhesives, fuel additives, rubber, performance polymers, metalworking fluids, and bio-lubricants. It is fairly cheap because it is produced as a byproduct. It is also biodegradable and has low toxicity, making it more environmentally friendly alternative to many petrochemical-based products. For metalworking fluids, high rosin TOFA can even be used as the rosin acids to help with foam suppression.
Demand for TOFA is steadily increasing due to its bio-based and renewable feedstock, which is especially desirable as it does not come from a food crop source, making it sustainability profile especially attractive. In the European Union (EU), Crude Tall Oil and TOFA have driven up a huge demand due to government subsidies which favor their use as a renewable diesel feedstock. This demand is out pacing the demand for paper products, which have remained fairly flat since the switch to electronic documents for many people. Due to this, the market for TOFA is expected to remain tight for the foreseeable future.
The Need for a TOFA Alternative
This tightness in the market has led to many users of TOFA to search for an alternative. Soybean oil has a similar fatty acid profile to TOFA, and so some soya oils or methyl ester products might be suitable bio-based alternatives to TOFA. The same is true for Canola and Palm Oil, which also contains a fair amount of Oleic Acid. However, these sources might be slightly are disadvantaged because they do come from a food corp. However, with deforestation also a concern, the vegetable crops can be farmed much more quickly than the timber feedstocks for Tall Oil. For this reason the vegetable oil based TOFA alternatives have a lower carbon-footprint than TOFA itself. Additionally, advancements in technology have made the cost of these alternative products competitive in the industrial landscape. These engineered vegetable oil blends now boast a fatty acid distribution so similar to TOFA that they can be used as a drop in replacement, sometimes with better performance than TOFA, and increased biodegradability.
Alternatives to TOFA
- High Oleic Mixed Fatty Acid 4005
- High Oleic Mixed Fatty Acid 4009