Recovery of tocopherols/tocotrienols, carotenoids, glycerols, sterols and fatty acid esters from crude vegetable oil and the process thereof
OwnerDavid Sue San Hoinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for recovering tocotrienols/tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols from crude vegetable oil, characterised in that prior to the recovery steps, the amount of the free fatty acids in the oil is reduced to 3.50% by weight by distillation or neutralization.
Claims37
-70. (canceled)
A process for recovering tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols from crude vegetable oil, wherein prior to a recovery step, an amount of free fatty acids in the crude vegetable oil is reduced to less than 3.50% by weight of a total crude vegetable oil composition, comprising the steps of:
- distilling the crude vegetable oil or fractions thereof using two distillation columns, in a sequential arrangement, each column operating under a pressure and at a temperature suitable for separating tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids or sterols from the fractions.
A process for recovering tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols from crude vegetable oil, wherein prior to the recovery steps, comprising the steps of:
- distilling an amount of free fatty acids in the crude vegetable oil so that the fatty free acids are reduced to 3.50% by weight, wherein the distilling step is performed using two distillation columns, a first column operating at a temperature of 90 to 200° C. and a pressure ranging from 10 to 100 kPa and a second column operating at a temperature of at 120 to 250° C. and a pressure ranging from 0.10 to 10 kPa.
A process for recovering tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols from crude vegetable oil, wherein prior to a recovery step, an amount of free fatty acids in the crude vegetable oil is reduced to less than 3.50% by weight by neutralization, comprising the steps of:
- neutralizing the crude vegetable oil by adding a basic solution thereto so as to convert fatty acids to salts that are to be separated by filtration;
- transesterifying the neutralized oil in the presence of an alcohol and a basic catalyst to convert glycerides therein to fatty acid esters and glycerine, forming an ester-rich fraction and a glycerol-rich fraction;
- separating the ester-rich fraction from the glycerol-rich fraction;
- distilling the ester-rich fraction to produce a concentrated stream comprising tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols, in which the distilling step is performed using distillation columns arranged sequentially, each column operating at a pressure of 0.001 kPa to 0.01 kPa and at a temperature of 120 to 180° C.;
- further transesterifying the concentrated stream in the presence of an alcohol and a basic catalyst to form an ester-enriched fraction and a glycerol-rich fraction;
- and
- repeating the transesterification, separation and distilling steps sequentially and repeatedly to obtain a composition with a pre-determined concentration of tocotrienols, tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.