Removal Of Free Fatty Acids Research Articles

Simple One-Pot Process for the Removal of Free Fatty Acids and Soap from Crude Enzymatic Biodiesel Produced from Sludge Palm Oil

Simple One-Pot Process for the Removal of Free Fatty Acids and Soap from Crude Enzymatic Biodiesel Produced from Sludge Palm Oil

Removal of free fatty acid (FFA) in crude palm oil (CPO) using potassium oxide/dolomite as an adsorbent: Optimization by Taguchi method

In this study, potassium oxide supported on dolomite adsorbent was used as an adsorbent for free fatty acids (FFAs) treatment in crude palm oil (CPO). The characteristics of the adsorbent were determined by TGA, XRD, SEM, BET and TPD-CO2. Taguchi method was utilized for experimental design and optimum condition determination. There were four parameters and three levels involved in this study: time (30, 60, 90 min), stirring rate (300, 500, 700 rpm), adsorbent dosage (1, 3, 5 wt%) and K2O concentration (5, 10, 15 wt%). The adsorbent had a larger pore size, higher basic strength, and more basic sites in greater efficiency (63%) in FFAs removal from CPO. The optimum conditions were at 30 min time, 700 rpm stirring rate, 5 wt% adsorbent dosage and 15 wt% K2O concentration. Taguchi method simplified determination of experimental parameters and minimized the operating costs.

Optimisation of Free Fatty Acid Removal in Nyamplung Seed Oil (Callophyllum inophylum L.) using Response Surface Methodology Analysis

Nyamplung seed (Calophyllum inophyllum L.) oil is a prospective non-edible vegetable oil as biodiesel feedstock. However, it cannot be directly used in the alkaline catalysed transesterification reaction since it contains high free fatty acid (FFA) of 19.17%. The FFA content above 2% will cause saponification reaction, reducing the biodiesel yield. In this work, FFA removal was performed using sulfuric acid catalysed esterification to meet the maximum FFA amount of 2%. Experimental work and response surface methodology (RSM) analysis were conducted. The reaction was conducted at the fixed molar ratio of nyamplung seed oil and methanol of 1:30 and the reaction times of 120 minutes. The catalyst concentration and the reaction temperature were varied. The highest reaction conversion was 78.18%, and the FFA concentration was decreased to 4.01% at the temperature of 60℃ and reaction time of 120 minutes. The polynomial model analysis on RSM demonstrated that the quadratic model was the most suitable FFA conversion optimisation. The RSM analysis exhibited the optimum FFA conversion of 78.27% and the FFA content of 4%, attained at the reaction temperature, catalyst concentration, and reaction time of 59.09℃, 1.98% g/g nyamplung seed oil, and 119.95 minutes, respectively. Extrapolation using RSM predicted that the targeted FFA content of 2% could be obtained at the temperature, catalyst concentration, and reaction time of 58.97℃, 3%, and 194.9 minutes, respectively, with a fixed molar ratio of oil to methanol of 1:30. The results disclosed that RSM is an appropriate statistical method for optimising the process variable in the esterification reaction to obtain the targeted value of FFA.

Liquid–liquid equilibrium calculations of systems containing vegetable oil + fatty acids + ethanol + water using new parameters for the unifac subgroups of ethanol and water

Deacidification removes free fatty acids (FFA) from crude vegetable oils during the refining process. The removal of FFA carried out by liquid–liquid extraction has some advantages over chemical and physical refining processes: it saves energy and decreases neutral oil losses caused by undesirable chemical reactions. The knowledge of phase equilibrium behavior of systems involving vegetable oils, solvents, and FFA is necessary to design and optimize the liquid–liquid extraction processes for deacidification. In this context, the present work aims to predict the liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) for systems consisting of vegetable oil + fatty acids + ethanol + water, readjusting new UNIFAC interaction parameters just for the ethanol and water subgroups. Several experimental LLE data for multicomponent fatty systems available in the literature are used to adjust the new UNIFAC interaction parameters for the ethanol (EtOH) and water subgroups. The temperature range studied was 288.15 K to 323.15 K, at atmospheric pressure. The new 18 interaction parameters provide a considerably lower mean square error (0.87%) than the other works available in the literature. The results show that the developed procedures improve the capacity of the UNIFAC method to predict LLE for systems involved in the deacidification process of crude vegetable oil. The methodology employed in this work results in reduced computational calculations and a relatively small split with the complex dataset established by the UNIFAC-LL model.

Response surface methodology guided adsorption and recovery of free fatty acids from oil using resin

AbstractThe presence of free fatty acids interferes with the conversion of plant oils to biodiesel. Four strong and weak base resins were evaluated for the removal of free fatty acids (FFA) from oil. Amberlite FPA 51 showed the highest adsorption capacity of FFA. A resin concentration above 3% could enable a higher percentage FFA adsorption. The adsorption process fitted a pseudo‐first‐order kinetic model and achieved equilibrium in approximately 8 h. A full factorial design was used to optimize the resin and FFA concentrations at a fixed temperature (40 °C). A ratio of resin to fatty acid concentrations above 1.875 was sufficient for 70% adsorption and the amount adsorbed continued to increase with further added resin. A two‐step washing of resin using hexane and ethanol recovered approximately 67.55% ± 4.05% of the initially added fatty acid. The resin that was used was regenerated with 5% NaOH and re‐used for a minimum of three consecutive cycles. However, the adsorption capacity diminished to 75% of the initial cycle in cycles 2 and 3. Thus, the work presents a resin‐based process for deacidification of oil to reduce fatty acid content of oil for biodiesel production. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Deacidification of rice bran oil using a deep eutectic solvent

The liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) will be applied in this study using a deep eutectic solvent (DES) of choline chloride and ethylene glycol with a 1:2 molar ratio. The LLE process will compare the results of removing free fatty acids (FFAs) between single and multiple extractions. Rice bran oil (RBO) with various initial FFAs contents (5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 60%, w/w) and γ -oryzanol (2%, w/w) are used in this study. Deacidification is carried out by mixing RBO with a certain level of FFAs and γ -oryzanol, a volume ratio of RBO: solvent (DES) = 1:2, and total extraction time in multiple LLE was 1200 min. (240 min./stage x 5 stage). It was obtained that the removal of FFAs in the single LLE are 10.04%, 23.28%, 13.43%, 17.55%, and 17.49%, respectively, while in the multiple LLE are 48.64%, 60.37%, 63.13%, 63.15%, and 41.79%, respectively, for RBO with an initial FFAs content of 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 60%, respectively. The losses of γ-oryzanol in the single LLE are 48.32%, 61.26%, 73.32%, 74.22%, and 89.59%, respectively, while in the multiple LLE are 87.16%, 95.58%, 99.14%, 99.77%, and 99.77%, respectively, for RBO with an initial FFAs content of 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 60%, respectively. Deacidification of RBO using DES in the multiple LLE removed FFAs 3.63 times higher than that in the single LLE. However, the losses of γ-oryzanol increased in the multiple LLE which is 1.43 times higher than that in the single LLE.

An integrated simulation–optimisation approach for free fatty acid removal in palm oil deodorisation process

AbstractDeodorisation is the key process to produce high‐quality refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil (RBDPO) in a palm oil refinery. In this work, an integrated simulation–optimisation approach was adopted for the analysis of a deodorisation process in an operating palm oil refinery. The process includes a deodoriser unit that removes free fatty acids (FFA) from bleached palm oil (BPO), and a vacuum scrubber utilising palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) to reduce the FFA content entering the vacuum system. Being a proprietary technology, deodoriser is not found in the standard models of commercial simulation software. Approximation was made in simulation, with results compared to plant data. Detailed analyses showed that the reduction of FFA content relies on deodorisation temperature and pressure, stripping steam flowrate, as well as the temperature and flowrate of PFAD entering the vacuum scrubber. An optimisation model was solved to maximise profit from the deodorisation. Results showed that the FFA content entering the vacuum system is reduced significantly by 49.7%, leading to higher recovery of FFA in PFAD and lower loss into the condenser section. Applying the optimum values to the refinery has resulted in FFA levels greater than 91.2% in PFAD and RBDPO yield improvement of 0.5%.

Experimental study on lowering oleic acid value and peroxide value of camellia sinensis by scraping film molecular distillation

Camellia oil is a kind of natural product with high added value. In the process of production, processing, and transportation, acidic substances and peroxides that reduce the quality of oil are produced. In this paper, it was refined by scraping membrane molecular distillation device. The factors affecting the molecular distillation results were analyzed and studied through a single factor experiment and orthogonal experiment. On the surface of the experiment, the optimal process parameters were as follows: the temperature was 190℃, the pressure was 1 Pa, the scraping speed was 300r/min, and the feed amount was 900g/h. Under this condition, the acid value in camellia oil decreased from 2.67mgKOH/g to 0.19mgKOH/g, and the free fatty acid removal rate was 92.88%. The peroxide value decreased from 16.78mmol/kg to 1.03mmol/kg, and the peroxide removal rate was 93.86%. The experimental results showed that the surface of the scraping membrane molecular distillation equipment could meet the national standard of acid value and peroxide value under the appropriate technological parameters, and there was no solvent residue, which was a safe physical purification process.

Synthesis of spinel ferrite and its role in the removal of free fatty acids from deteriorated vegetable oil

Deterioration and loss of quality of vegetable oil is a big challenge in the food industry. This study investigated the synthesis of nickel ferrite (NiFe 2 O 4 ) via co-precipitation method and its use for the removal of free fatty acids (FFAs) in deteriorated vegetable oil. NiFe 2 O 4 was characterized using Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Synthesis of NiFe 2 O 4 was confirmed by characterization, which revealed a BET surface area of 16.30 m 2 ·g −1 and crystallite size of 29 nm. NiFe 2 O 4 exhibited an adsorption capacity of 145.20 L·kg −1 towards FFAs with an 80.69% removal in a process, which obeys Langmuir isotherm and can be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The process has enthalpy (Δ H ) of 11.251 kJ·mol −1 and entropy (Δ S ) of 0.038 kJ·mol −1 ·K −1 with negative free energy change (Δ G ), which suggests the process to be spontaneous and endothermic. The quantum chemical computation analysis via density functional theory further revealed the sorption mechanism of FFAs by NiFe 2 O 4 occurred via donor–acceptor interaction, which may be described by the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). The study showed NiFe 2 O 4 to be a potential means that can remove FFAs from deteriorated vegetable oil.

Valorization of energy crop shells as potential green adsorbents for free fatty acid removal from oils for biodiesel production

Due to the success of the use of energy crop oils in the production of biodiesel, the heavy cultivation of these plants in many countries is being promoted. However, it may lead to the problem with its associated waste shells, which contain low nutrient; consequently, they are not suitable for use as an agricultural fertilizer, and they are abundant in hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin resulting in difficult to digest or degrade. Thus, a possible solution for this waste is to convert it into carbon-based adsorbents. Specifically, activated carbon is a product with a high added value, widely used material due to its adsorbent properties. These adsorbents could be used for reducing the free fatty acids content presents in oils intended for the biodiesel production. The presence of free fatty acids in the oils is undesirable for biodiesel production due to a performance reduction in the transesterification reaction. The aim of this work is to use biomass waste such as Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata shells for the preparation of carbon-based materials (activated carbons, Ca(OH)2 supported on activated carbons and charcoals) and to study the possibility of using them as adsorbents for reducing the free fatty acids content of Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata oils.

Synthesis of amine imprinted manganese ferrite and its application in the removal of free fatty acid from waste vegetable oil

The presence of free fatty acid (FFA) in waste vegetable oil (WVO) is undesired and must be removed. The present study synthesized amine imprinted manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4-DEA) via coprecipitation method and used it for the removal of FFA in WVO. Fourier transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirmed the formation of MnFe2O4-DEA and further analysis by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area showed the nanoparticles possessed a surface area of 20.64 m² g−1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) revealed elemental composition and surface morphology. MnFe2O4-DEA showed promising results of FFA separation, recording 99.57% removal rate. The process obeyed langmuir isotherm and can be described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The values of Gibb's free energy change (∆Go) decreased with increase in temperature, the entropy change (∆So) was positive while enthalpy change (∆Ho) value suggested an endothermic sorption process. The mechanism for the removal of FFA by MnFe2O4-DEA may have occurred by simple chemical bonding, which could be described as donor-acceptor interaction by quantum chemical analysis.

Adsorption Performance of Low-cost Java Plum Leaves and Guava Fruits as Natural Adsorbents for Removal of Free Fatty Acids from Coconut Oil

This study assesses the adsorption performance of Java plum leaves and guava fruits based adsorbents as natural products widely available in Aceh, Indonesia. These renewable adsorbents were employed to remove free fatty acids (FFAs) that cause the rancid odor in coconut oil. The adsorption tests were carried out at three different doses (50, 75, 100 g) and seven agitating periods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 h). The adsorbents were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to observe their morphologies, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to investigate the functional groups. The adsorption kinetics were also analyzed using the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models. The SEM image showed that the particle sizes of the guava fruits based adsorbent were 30-45 µm while those of Java plum leaves based adsorbent were 7-15 µm, both showing attractive range to enhance surface area for adsorption sites. FTIR spectra showed the presence of methylene, aliphatic and phenolic groups for both absorbent, aromatic and alkene groups only for java plum based adsorbent and secondary amine and alcohol groups only for guava fruit based adsorbent. Those groups seem to play important role in enhancing chemical adsorption of FFAs from the coconut oil sample. The results showed that Java plum leaves and guava fruits based adsorbents had a respective maximum adsorption capacity of 144.99 and 133.77 mg/g, with an optimum agitation time of 6 hour. The high absorption capacity could be ascribed from phenolic and flavonoid compounds present in both materials. Kinetics of adsorption of FFAs on both materials obeyed the Freundlich isotherm model indicating a multilayer and heterogeneous surface of adsorbent.

Deacidification of Crude Rice Bran Oil (CRBO) to Remove FFA and Preserve γ-Oryzanol Using Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES)

High content of free fatty acids (FFA) in crude rice bran oil (CRBO) needs to be separated through deacidification. Generally, deacidification process that is widely used are chemical and physical processes which causes the loss of bioactive compounds (γ-oryzanol) and un-environmentally friendly. The liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using deep eutectic solvents (DES) to remove FFA and preserve g-oryzanol would be implemented in this study. DES with different hydrogen bond donor (HBD) and hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) with certain molar ratio such as Choline Chloride (ChCl)-Ethylene glycol 1:2 (DES I), ChCl-Glycerol 1:1 (DES II), ChCl-Urea 1:2 (DES III), ChCl-Oxalic acid 1:2 (DES IV), and Betaine Monohydrate-Glycerol 1:8 (NADES) were used as solvent to extract FFA from dewaxed/degummed RBO (DDRBO) for certain extraction time (30, 60, 120, 180, and 240 min) and extraction temperature (30°C, 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, and 70°C) under stirring (200 rpm). Deacidification using DES I for 240 min. and temperature of 50 °C was the optimum solvent to remove FFA (19.03 ± 2.33 %) and preserve g-oryzanol (recovery of g-oryzanol was 51.30 ± 1.77 %). The results also revealed that the longer time of extraction would be increased removal of FFA and decreased recovery of g-oryzanol. The higher temperature of extraction would be increased removal of FFA. In this work, temperature of 50 °C was the best extraction temperature of FFA since DES has highest solubility at this temperature.

Wet-spun nanoTiO2/chitosan nanocomposite fibers as efficient and retrievable absorbent for the removal of free fatty acids from edible oil

Here we propose a wet-spinning assembly approach to continuously spin nanoTiO2/chitosan (CS) nanocomposite fibers, which are used directly as absorbents to remove free fatty acids (FFA) from edible oils. The morphology of nanoTiO2 and nanoTiO2/CS nanocomposite fibers was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The structure of the fibers was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and wide angel X-ray diffractometry (WAXD). Moreover, the mechanical property, thermal stability, and antibacterial activity of the fibers were evaluated. These fibers were used for the deacidification of rice bran oil and the acid value of the oil was found decreased from 4.53 ± 0.15 to 1.07 ± 0.06 mg KOH/g within 5 h with a 10 wt % load at 50 ℃. The combination of wet-spinning technology and excellent performance of nanoTiO2/CS nanocomposite fibers paves the way to eco-friendly and sustainable material for FFA removal.

Refining process for production of refined palm-pressed fibre oil

Palm-pressed fibre oil (PPFO) is rich in natural phytonutrients such as carotenes and tocotrienols (vitamin E), which makes it worth further development to enhance its quality. Crude PPFO is currently extracted using solvents without further refining. This study aimed to refine crude PPFO using a combination of processes including degumming, bleaching, and deacidification. Various doses of hot distilled water at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 v/v% were applied during water degumming to remove soluble and hydratable gummy materials in crude PPFO. Degumming with acids at doses ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 wt% were tested to obtain oil with low phosphorus content. Bleaching earth doses ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 wt% were used to absorb trace metals and other impurities. The bleached PPFO was subjected to deacidification to remove free fatty acid (FFA). The optimum refining conditions were using 5.0 v/v% of hot distilled water at 90 °C for 20 min for water degumming, 1.0 wt% of phosphoric acid at 90 °C for 10 min for acid degumming, 0.1 wt% of natural bleaching earth at 105 °C for 15 min during bleaching, and deacidification at 110 °C at 0.1 mtorr. The refined PPFO (RPPFO) showed a 98% reduction of phosphorus content (from 565 ppm to 13±2 ppm) and FFA removal of 97% (from 5.94% to 0.15%), while deterioration of bleachability index (DOBI) increased by 44% (from 1.99 to 2.87±0.17). In addition, RPPFO was rich in carotenoids (1208±23 ppm) and vitamin E (904±8 ppm) that can be developed into high value products. The RPPFO meets the quality specifications of refined, bleached, and deodorised palm oil (RBDPO) while maintaining the heat-sensitive phytonutrients.

Extraction and esterification of waste coffee grounds oil as non-edible feedstock for biodiesel production

The potential of waste coffee grounds (WCG) as a non-edible feedstock for biodiesel production was evaluated in term of extraction and esterification of waste coffee grounds oil (WCGO). The effect of liquid-solid extraction parameters such as the type and volume of solvent, the extraction time and temperature, and mixing speed were thoroughly investigated. The highest yield of oil extracted from WCGO was 15.47 wt% obtained at a hexane to WCG ratio of 9:1 (v/w) with a mixing speed of 200 rpm and an extraction duration of 5 min at room temperature. An esterification reaction was conducted as a pre-treatment step to reduce the concentration of free fatty acid (FFA), optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) combined with a central composite design (CCD). The results indicated that all the parameters including the methanol (MeOH) to FFA molar ratio, quantity of catalyst, reaction time and temperature were significant for %FFA removal. In the esterification step, the FFA conversion was 95% at the predicted optimization condition which corresponded to the experimental data. Therefore, the results of this study support the utilization of WCGO as a source of non-edible oil feedstock for biodiesel production.

Ethyl esters from waste oil: Reaction data of non-catalytic hydroesterification at pressurized conditions and purification with sugarcane bagasse ash

The reaction data of hydroesterification of waste oil, under pressurized conditions, were collected and the adsorption of compounds from ester mixture by sugarcane bagasse ash was evaluated. The reactions were conducted in a continuous reactor to evaluate of the effect of temperature and residence time. In the hydrolysis, the evaluated variables promoted an increase in free fatty acid (FFA) formation. However, at the highest temperature evaluated (320 °C), the equilibrium was reached after 12 min, obtaining 91.68% of FFA. Temperature and residence time increased the FFA conversion, although at 300 °C the conversion was stabilized after 10 min and ester yield after 20 min, thereby obtaining a 96.42% of FFA conversion with 74% of ester content. In the adsorption, the percentage of adsorbent and contact time varied for the FFA removal and polar compounds (PC). The adsorption equilibrium was reached with 12.5 wt% of ash and after 8 h 33.22% of FFA and 56.31% of PC were absorbed. Adsorption in four successive beds was also evaluated, changing the adsorbent mass every 8 h, maintaining the same adsorbate. The results indicated the removal of 43.89% of FFA and 73.08% of PC after the 4th bed.

Removal of Free Fatty Acid from Plant Oil by the Adsorption Process

The food oil refinery process for deacidification is ususally conducted by the neutralization after degumming. In this study, commercialized resins will be used as adsorbents to remove the free fatty acid (FFA) in food oil without using any solvent. Applying this environmental friendly green process, the energy efficiency will be increased and the waste water will be reduced compared to the traditional process. The selected adsorbent can be reused which may reduce the process cost. Instead of using alkali neutralization, the proposed process may reduce the concern of food oil security. The commercial resins A26OH and IRA900Cl were compared as adsorbents to remove the FFA in deacidification for refinery of food oil without adding any alkali chemicals. This process will be conducted to remove the FFA form peanut oil in this study. Besides, this study will get the adsorption isotherms for one of the better sorbents of A26OH or IRA900Cl to remove FFA from peanut oil under 25, 35, and 45°C. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were compared to fit the experimental data. The obtained isotherm data is important for the adsorption system design.

Ca(OH)2 nanoplates supported on activated carbon for the neutralization/removal of free fatty acids during biodiesel production

In this work, Ca(OH)2 nanoplates supported on activated carbon (AC) were used to efficiently remove free fatty acids (FFA) from soybean oil. SEM, TEM, XRD, TG, Zeta potential measurements showed that Ca(OH)2 nanoplates with average dimensions of 100–300 nm and crystallite size 17 nm supported/dispersed on the surface of the AC are very efficient to remove FFA by a reactive adsorption. Experiments with oleic acid 20% in soybean oil and Ca(OH)2 dosages varying from 5 to 60 mg mL−1 reached near 100% removal of FFA. The data suggest a reactive adsorption of oleic acid (OA) to form Ca(oleate)2 impregnated on the AC surface which can be easily removed from soybean oil. On the other hand, pure Ca(OH)2 nanoparticles or commercial reacts with OA to form a paste which cannot be separated. The Ca(OH)2/AC composite can be used as a FFA trap to allow biodiesel synthesis from soybean oil with 5 and 10% FFA using the classical basic NaOH homogeneous catalyst.

Deacidification of Crude Hazelnut Oil Using Molecular Distillation – Multiobjective Optimization for Free Fatty Acids and Tocopherol

Hazelnut oil is a good source for its high oleic acid and tocopherol contents. Since tocopherols are beneficial compounds in human diet, preservation of tocopherols in oil plays a great role in refining process. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum molecular distillation conditions for deacidification of crude hazelnut oil at which free fatty acids (FFAs) are removed while tocopherols are preserved as much as possible. A short‐path distillation column is used with evaporation temperatures ranging from 110 to 190 °C and vacuums from 0.05 to 5 mmHg for deacidification. Multiobjective optimization is performed for minimizing tocopherol loss and maximizing FFA removal simultaneously. Results reveal that higher temperature and vacuums achieve more deacidification in residual oil. FFA content is reduced to 2.05% at 190 °C and 0.05 mmHg. On the other hand, tocopherol concentrations are considerably affected at this condition while they remain almost stable at other conditions. Optimized conditions for removal of FFAs and protecting of tocopherols in crude hazelnut oil are calculated as 188.65 °C and 0.14 mmHg. For verification, an additional distillation is carried out at the calculated conditions, and the results are found very close to that of optimized conditions.Practical Applications: Physical refining or vacuum distillation process is a substitute to conventional refining which causes excessive neutral oil losses during neutralization. However, heat treatment for long periods of time may inevitably cause degradation of beneficial compounds such as tocopherols. For this purpose, this study focuses on optimizing molecular distillation conditions at which maximum tocopherol and minimum FFA could be obtained simultaneously. Outcomes would be useful for industrial physical refining plants dealing with optimum points for the same purpose.Deacidification of crude hazelnut oil using molecular distillation – multiobjective optimization for tocopherol and FFA