January 13th, 2011. - The State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia granted a patent for the innovation “N,N',N" -Tris-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-guanidine: the procedure of preparation from carbodiimide and application in reactions of the transesterification of oil" to the inventors Dr. Mirjana Eckert-Maksić and Dr. Zoran Glasovac. The patent was published in The Croatian Intellectual Property Gazette no. 1/2011.

The investigations showed that transesterification reactions of sunflower, rapeseed and soybean oils in methanol were efficiently catalyzed by new trisubstituted guanidine derivative. Therefore the new guanidine catalyst can be used in the biodiesel production, production of fine chemicals, organocatalysis, and various research studies where a catalyst for transesterification reactions is needed.