Purification of triglyceride oil from microbial sources using short path distillation
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsShu-Chien Liang, Robert D Orlandi
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Abstract
Disclosed is a process for reducing the amount of sterol in a sterol-containing microbial oil composition, including distilling, under short path distillation conditions, a sterol-containing microbial oil wherein said distillation produces a distillate fraction containing the sterol and a triacylglycerol-containing fraction having a reduced amount of the sterol when compared to the amount of sterol in the sterol-containing microbial oil composition that has not been subjected to short path distillation.
Claims10
A process for reducing the amount of sterol in a sterol-containing microbial oil composition obtained from microbial biomass of recombinant Yarrowia cells, said method comprising:
- a) distilling, at least once under short path distillation conditions, the sterol-containing microbial oil composition, wherein said oil composition comprises:
- (i) triacylglycerol comprising one or more polyunsaturated fatty acids;
- and
- (ii) a sterol fraction of at least 300 mg/100 g of oil, wherein the sterol fraction comprises one or more sterols selected from the group consisting of stigmasterol, ergosterol, brassicasterol, campesterol, beta-sitosterol, and desmosterol;
- wherein said distillation produces a distillate fraction comprising the sterol and a triacylglycerol-containing fraction having a reduced amount of the sterol when compared to the amount of sterol in the sterol-containing microbial oil composition that has not been subjected to short path distillation;
- and
- b) optionally, recovering the triacylglycerol-containing fraction;
- wherein said Yarrowia cells are engineered for production of eicosapentaenoic acid and at least 20% of the dry cell weight of said Yarrowia cells is eicosapentaenoic acid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.