Clarification of sunflower oil with nanocarbon sorbent and analysis of product quality indicators

Abstract

The concept of Industrie 4.0 involves the introduction of innovative industrial technologies. Sunflower oil is the most common vegetable oil in Russia. Improvement of sunflower oil quality is required taking into account changes in the domestic and foreign markets of Russia. The process of oil clarification with nanocarbon structures is proposed in the article. The influence of fullerene-containing sorbent on the efficiency of sunflower oil clarification process was investigated in the work. The mathematical model of the process is developed with the complete factorial experiment. Colour, acid number, mass fraction of moisture and volatile substances were taken as quality indicators. Variable indicators were the amount of fullerene-containing sorbent, the particle size of the fullerene-containing sorbent and the clarification process temperature. Series of experiments were carried out. According to them the values of color and acid numbers, mass fraction of moisture and volatile substances of the oil were obtained. The indicators obtained were compared with the oil indicators after the traditional clarification method. According to the built mathematical models graphs, a comprehensive quality indicator was determined as well as the optimal values of the conditions for the clarification process. It was found out that the use of fullerene-containing carbon as a sorbent for sunflower oil clarification improves the acid number by 80%, the mass fraction of moisture and volatile substances – by 74%, and the color index – twice. Thus, the use of fullerene-containing carbon as an adsorbent makes it possible to obtain world-class sunflower oil.