DRYING OILS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 13

DRYING OILS

SOYA BEAN POSSIBILITIES

A meeting of the Wellington t>ranch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry was held at Victoria University College this week, when the chairman, Mr. L. R. L. Dunn, M.Sc, delivered an address entitled "The Drying Oils Used in Paints, with Some Modern Trends." After giving an outline of the-chemi-cal constitution of the commerciallyimportant drying oils, the speaker referred with some detail to linseed oil, and described some of the scientific principles involved in the extraction of the oil from the seed and in the various subsequent manufacturing processes.

In referring to some of the available linseed oil substitutes, the speaker mentioned the possible economic importance to New Zealand of the introduction of the soya bean as a farm crop, not only on account of the valuable oil that could be extracted from the bean, but also because of the highprotein cake that would be available for stock after the extraction of the oil. In this connection, it was pointed out that the pig industry, which was so greatly developed in Denmark, was to a very large extent made possible by importation of tfie soya bean. Another oil that had come into prominence of recent years was tups oil, mainly used, in combination with synthetic resins, for the production of the modern, quick-drying varnishes. Attempts, some successful, had been made in many countries to establish plantations of the tung tree, as at present the supply of the oil was insufficient to meet the demand. The valuable properties of the oil could be ascribed to the special configuration of the triglyceride molecule, which readily lent itself to polymerisation, as in the "stand oil" process.

The address concluded with a brief account of the mechanism of the "drying" process, considered from the chemical standpoint.