Abstract
When processing sheep wool, wool fat (lanolin) can be obtained as a by-product. The difficulty of extraction from emulsion after washing is the main reason for the low level of utilization of wool fat. The development of technologies for processing these emulsions will make it possible to obtain valuable raw materials for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, as well as to reduce pollution of water runoff with organic substances. The article presents a diagram of the installation and shows the fundamental possibility of using the electrocoagulation and electrodialysis method for the quantitative extraction of wool fat from washing waters with an extraction degree of more than 90%, which is much higher than when separating the emulsion by the most common method using centrifuges. The pure lanolin obtained was saponified in this process to obtain sterol alcohols, in particular, cholesterol. However, the lanolin saponification process is complicated by stable emulsions, which prevent the complete conversion of lanolin. The technology of alkaline hydrolysis of lanolin was developed using a solvent system – isopropyl alcohol with organic additives of hexane or benzene at 100°C, which prevents the formation of stable emulsion in the reaction mixture and increases the hydrolysis degree of lanolin to 88–89%. Identification of reaction products – mixtures of sterol alcohols – was carried out by comparing their infrared (IR) spectra with the spectra of pharmacopoeial lanolin and cholesterol and by chromatography. The fatty acid composition of the hydrolysis products was analyzed by gas chromatography. Also, the process used in this study is electroflotation, which is suitable for the treatment of oily wastewater.