[bluebear]

I tried this last night and it was a big fat fail so did some more digging. Turns out that citric acid isn’t strong enough and having water in the reaction doesn’t really help as it’s one of the products.

To force the reaction I need the following

• A strong acid
• anhydrous conditions
• a long heat
• an excess of alcohol.  

My next step is to try sodium bisulfate as the catalyst as it’s the only strong acid I can get OTC and try the reaction under anhydrous conditions…

[bluebear]

Thanks for your help everyone.

@Bobzechemist Yeah, I know that it doesn’t matter too much what I end up with if it works as an emulsifier and I like the feel. I just don’t like the idea of not knowing…… 

@alchemist I think I might do a rough calc of the SAP value, brilliant idea and so obvious. *smacks hand on forehead*

@vitalys thanks for that, I didn’t know that there is palmitic acid in it as well.