US Patent 7612221 Production of fatty acid alkyl esters

The present invention relates to a method for producing fatty acid alkyl esters, involving transesterifying a feedstock containing lipid-linked fatty acids with an alcohol and an alkaline catalyst to form fatty acid alkyl esters. The feedstock has not been previously treated to release the lipid components of said feedstock, or the feedstock has been previously treated to release lipid components and the feedstock contains residual lipids (e.g., <about 30% of the original content of lipids).