Common methods for the chemical production of fatty aldehydes, widely applied as artificial flavors and fragrances, use fossil starting materials, harsh reaction conditions, and hazardous chemicals. This contribution introduces a novel, environmentally friendly process for the preparation of fatty aldehydes from the natural, renewable resource plant oil. It has successfully been shown that bringing a fatty acid into contact with zerovalent iron leads to the reduction of the fatty acid to the corresponding fatty aldehyde. In this paper, the three-step process is presented and discussed, exemplary for the preparation of dodecylaldehyd from dodecanoate.
