Abstract
Membrane technology has been gaining momentum in industrial processes, especially in food technology. It is believed to simplify processes, reduce energy consumption, and eliminate pollutants. The objective was to study the performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyethersulfone (PES) polymeric membranes in the degumming of the miscella of crude rice bran oil by using a bench-scale tangential filtration module. In addition, oil miscella filtration techniques using hexane and anhydrous ethyl alcohol solvents were compared. All membranes showed the retention of phospholipids and high flow rates. However, the best performance was observed using the 50-kDa PVDF membrane in miscella hexane solvent, with a 95.5% retention of the phosphorus concentration (by a factor of 1.4), resulting in a permeate with 29 mg·kg−1 of phosphorus and an average flow rate of 48.1 L·m−2·h−1. This technology can be used as a low-pollution, economical alternative for the de-gumming of crude rice bran oil, being effective in the removal of hydratable and non-hydratable phospholipids, resulting in oils with a low phosphorus content.
Highlights
Degumming is a refining step, wherein the phospholipids are removed
The presence of large quantities of phospholipids in oil leads to a dark coloration; in addition, phospholipids act as emulsifiers, leading to a loss in neutral oils and resulting in a low quality product (Erickson, 1995; Manjula and Subramaniam, 2006)
The membrane filtration process involves the separation of components of a pressurized liquid through a membrane; this method allows for the separation of compounds using the differences in size, molecular weight, and pressure as the driving force, without the use of chemicals (Frieldlander and Rickes1966; Cheryan, 1998; Coutinho et al, 2009)
Summary
The conventional oil refinement process is characterized by high energy, water, and chemical product requirements, loss in neutral oil and nutrients, and a high rate of effluent production (Subramanian et al, 2001; Roy et al, 2014). The use of membranes during processing has been shown to simplify the process. The membrane filtration process involves the separation of components of a pressurized liquid through a membrane; this method allows for the separation of compounds using the differences in size, molecular weight, and pressure as the driving force, without the use of chemicals (Frieldlander and Rickes1966; Cheryan, 1998; Coutinho et al, 2009). The similar molecular weights of triacylglycerols (900 Da) and phospholipids (700 Da) could complicate the membrane-based separation of these components. Phospholipids have some specific features that could assist in their separation; they are natural surfactants and express hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups that are capable of forming micelle under non-aqueous conditions (Ochoa et al, 2001)
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