39-6 |
Membrane/supercritical fluid technology for production of functional lecithin |
S. S. KOSEOGLU1, L. Teberikler2, and A. Akgerman2. (1) Food Protein R&D Center, Texas A&M Univ., Cater Mattil Hall, TAMU 2476, College Station, TX 77843-2476, (2) Chemical Engineering Dept., Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX 77843 Oilseed processing, and edible oil refining industries use various unit operations to manufacture quality vegetable oil products free of undesirable impurities that satisfy market demands. There has been a continuous improvement in process engineering and equipment design to improve efficiency of the separation to reduce energy, eliminate waste and increase production capacity. Some of these new processing techniques include modified seed preparation methods, use of new solvent extraction systems to deactivate the enzymes prior to processing, and use of various physical and chemical methods to remove phospholipids, coloring pigments, free fatty acids, undesirable flavor and aroma from the crude oil. Utilization of Membrane technology in edible oil refining and oil milling have been developing to eliminate some of the expensive, inefficient processing steps and at the same time providing high quality value added products. This paper will provide a review of new technologies and report findings on a new extraction, fractionation and purification methods for the individual phospholipid fractions (phosphatidyl choline) in pure form from the membrane retantate using a combination of membrane and supercritical fluid technologies. During the past two years, a variety of on-site tests were conducted to collect additional performance data on crude soybean processing by membrane technology. The specific test performed included hexane and miscella profiles, fouling tests with miscella addition, concentration profiles and lecithin purification. The effects of pressure, temperature, and optimum velocity on permeate flux of miscella and selectivity was evaluated. One hundred percent of hydratable and non-hydratable phospholipids and Mg were rejected by the membrane with commercially acceptable permeate flow rates. In a single stage extraction, one can obtain 90+% PC from lecithin that contained only 23% PC. This approach is simple, low volume, and environmentally friendly.
Session 39, Natural health products and dietary supplements
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