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Does saponification of beeswax yield glycerin?

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JustinME

Mechanical
Aug 20, 2013
27
I am making a custom grease (castor oil & sodium stearate) that will be suspended in beeswax. I have found that saponifying some beeswax for use in the grease results in higher operating temperatures after the grease is melted with the wax. I cannot have any glycerin in the final product, so I do not yet know how to properly make my own soap [at home]. The first reason I cannot have any glycerin, is because this will be used as a bullet lubricant for cast lead bullet, and I am concerned that the glycerin may form acrolein in the final application; the second reason is because the hydroscopic properties of glycerin are also bad. For more information, look up Felix World Famous Lube.
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As far as I can tell, there are no glycerides in beeswax... but I cannot find great data on that. If there are no glycerides in bees wax, then I do not believe it is possible to yield glycerin in the saponification process of only beeswax.
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I am considering a transesterifcation process, just to remove any possible glycerin, but I made need butanol (high saponification temperature of beeswax) which is expensive to the point that a I'd rather do something entirely different. I may be able to use ethanol, if I slowly titrate the ethoxide into the molten beeswax. I also have many open questions here, since bees wax is more than just fatty acids.
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So, does beeswax contain any glycerides?
 
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A brief review of the composition of beeswax doesn't indicate any presence of glycerol to be concerned about, assuming you have received pure beeswax that is not adulterated with vegetable oils or other fats.

There are esters in the wax though and those can be hydrolyzed. There's also a large free fatty acid content.
 
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