The effect of low temperature in enzymatic glycerolysis on monoglyceride concentration production using green emulsifier based refined bleached deodorized palm oil

Abstract

The palm oil is a main commodity of plantation in Indonesia. It should be a good potential to produce many downstream products based on palm oil. But the reality is the export rate of crude palm oil is higher than the processing rate of downstream product. The aim of this study was to analyse one of downstream i.e., green emulsifier. The production used the enzymatic glycerolysis method without anorganic catalyst. The independent variables were reaction temperature 5, 10, 20, 35 and 55°C. The dependent variable was glyceride content (mono-, di- and triglyceride) that analysed by Gas Chromatography method. Before reacting, the first step was characterization of refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) as the based material. The regression was determined using ANOVA with SPSS 2.0. If the result was significant, it would be continued with partial analysis and graphically trending. The results of this study showed that the glycerolysis temperature had significant on the monoglyceride but had no significant effect to the di- and triglyceride at alpha 10%. They show the lower temperature of glycerolysis, the higher monoglyceride was obtained. The advantage was able to produce high monoglyceride emulsifier but need the very strict control in processing.