Valorisation of vegetable oils by heterogeneous catalysis via metathesis reactions

The metathesis of unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) to obtain value-added chemicals is becoming increasingly attractive in oleochemistry. Nevertheless, there is a need to develop efficient solid catalysts for FAME metathesis that would allow straightforward catalyst separation and recovery. In this work, the main advances achieved lately using novel heterogeneous catalysts for the homo-metathesis of methyl oleate and the cross-metathesis of methyl oleate with lower olefins are analyzed.