Premium
Membrane degumming of crude rice bran oil: Pilot plant study
Author(s) -
Subrahmanyam Chunduri Venkata,
Rao Malapati Venkateswara,
Balasubrahmanyam Vura,
Bhowmick Dipti Narayan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of lipid science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1438-9312
pISSN - 1438-7697
DOI - 10.1002/ejlt.200600086
Subject(s) - refining (metallurgy) , rice bran oil , pulp and paper industry , bran , chemistry , membrane , ceramic membrane , membrane technology , permeation , vegetable oil , chromatography , materials science , food science , raw material , organic chemistry , biochemistry , engineering
The procedure for the classical chemical refining of vegetable oils consists of degumming, alkali neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. Conventional refining of rice bran oil using alkali gives oil of acceptable quality, but the refining losses are very high. A critical work has been carried out to study the application of membrane technology in the pretreatment of crude rice bran oil. Oils intended for physical refining should have a low phosphorus content, and this is not readily achievable by the conventional acid/water degumming process. The application of membrane technology for the pretreatment of rice bran oil has been investigated. The process has already been successfully applied to other vegetable oils. Ceramic membranes, which are important from the commercial point of view, were examined for this purpose. The results showed that the membrane‐filtered oils met the requirements of physical refining, with a substantial reduction in color. It was observed that most of the waxy material was also rejected. Experiments were carried out to establish the relationship between permeate flux and rejection with membrane pore size, trans‐membrane pressure and micellar solute concentration.