Recent developments on thin film and short path evaporation technologies for edible oils processing

Abstract

Short path distillation and thin film evaporation are generally associated with processing of heat-sensitive oils that require short residence times, high heat and mass transfer coefficients and shorter contact times. Thin film evaporation and short path distillation processes that normally operate at lower temperatures and higher vacuums are commonly used in the processing heat-sensitive oils like omega 3 oils and concentration of omega 3 ethyl esters. These technologies are now also being considered for the removal of processing and environmental contaminants from oils like palm, soybean and other marine oils.Artisan's thin evaporation and the new short path stripping (SPS) technology, with internal multistage-condensing capabilities, take advantage of both principles, namely short path distillation and thin film evaporation. Artisan-SPS system, with no internal moving parts and higher processing capacity, offers several advantages over commercial molecular distillation and deodorizer systems including applications in the removal of contaminants, physical refining and recovery and concentration of omega 3 ethyl esters.This presentation will include results on applications of the new thin evaporation and short path evaporation Artisan systems for the removal of environmental and processing-generated contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), dioxins, furans, 3-chloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD), glycidyl esters (GE) from oils such as palm, soybean and marine fats. The oils were also analyzed for free fatty acids, mono and diglycerides, peroxide value, anisidine value, color and flavor. The resulting oils met commercial quality specifications for refined edible oils, with the added advantage of reducing free fatty acids from 3.87 % (for palm oil) to < 0.1 % and removal of over 90 percent of mono and diglycerides, confirming the additional application of Artisan's SPS as a physical refining system and fractionation and recovery of mono and diglycerides. Regulatory specs for PCBs, dioxins and furans, MCPDs, GEs for edible oils were also successfully met.