Patent 7642386 was granted and assigned to Kao Corporation on January, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention relates to a process for producing an alcohol from fats and oils, including:step 1 of reacting starting fats and oils with water to produce a reaction product containing a glycerin unit, andstep 2 of subjecting the reaction product obtained in step 1 to a hydrogenation reaction in the presence of a catalyst in the coexistence of water in an amount of 0.5 mole or more relative to 1 mole of the glycerin unit contained in the reaction product.