Abstract
The vegetable oil extraction process from seeds and nuts depends on mechanical and solvent (usually n-hexane) extractions. Despite the efficiency of n-hexane, its use is nowadays questioned due to health, environmental, and technological issues. As an alternative to hexane extraction, several greener solvents and extraction techniques have been developed and tested during the last decades. Among these alternatives, the Surfactant-Aqueous Extraction Process (SAEP) appears as a promising method. Initially developed for the petroleum sector, this method was then tested and optimized for vegetable oil extraction. Successful implementations at the laboratory scale led to slightly more than 90% oil yield, mainly by using so-called “extended surfactants”. Compare to conventional surfactants, these surfactants can efficiently solubilize a large amount of vegetable oil in water, despite the structural diversity and the bulkiness of vegetable oil molecules. The present review is devoted to extended surfactant applications to SAEP. This review summarizes and discusses the main findings related to the extended surfactant structures and properties, as well as the main experimental results on the SAEP, and the advantages and the current limitations towards a scaling-up of this promising process.
Highlights
Several industrial sectors, such as oleo-chemistry, cosmetics, energy, and food, use vegetable oils
The method led to a significantly better oil quality in terms of clearness, odor, and free fatty acids content, without any additional purification or refining steps, compared to the conventional n-hexane extraction method
(2) the current insights on Surfactant-Aqueous Extraction Processes (SAEP) of vegetable oils, and (3) the limits to be overcome towards the industrialization of this novel extraction method
Summary
Several industrial sectors, such as oleo-chemistry, cosmetics, energy, and food, use vegetable oils. The innovation followed around twelve years of research work aiming at attaining high solubilization of natural bulky oils, like mono/di/triacylglycerols, for veterinary preparations that should be soluble in the blood (Salager et al, 2019) Such a molecular structure provides the surfactants the capacity to achieve an ultralow IFT ( 10À2 mN/m) between the water and a wide range of oils, including triglycerides. The method led to a significantly better oil quality in terms of clearness, odor, and free fatty acids content, without any additional purification or refining steps, compared to the conventional n-hexane extraction method During these last ten years, only a few studies dealing with the use of extended surfactants for vegetable oil aqueous extraction were published (Naksuk et al, 2009; Phan et al, 2010a, b; Kadioglu et al, 2011; Do and Sabatini 2011; Do et al, 2014a, b; Petts et al, 2017). (2) the current insights on Surfactant-Aqueous Extraction Processes (SAEP) of vegetable oils, and (3) the limits to be overcome towards the industrialization of this novel extraction method
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