Open AccessOptimization of methanol crystallization for highly efficient separation of palmitic acid from palm fatty acid mixture using response surface methodology
Author(s) -
Abd Al-Wali Japir,
Jumat Salimon,
Darfizzi Derawi,
Badrul Hisham Yahaya,
Mailina Jamil,
Muhammad Rahimi Yusop
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
grasas y aceites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.384
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1988-4214
pISSN - 0017-3495
DOI - 10.3989/gya.0552171
Subject(s) - crystallization , palmitic acid , methanol , stearic acid , response surface methodology , chemistry , flame ionization detector , yield (engineering) , chromatography , solvent , fatty acid , fatty acid methyl ester , gas chromatography , materials science , organic chemistry , biodiesel , catalysis , metallurgy
The objective of the current study was to develop parameters for the separation of palmitic acid (PA) from a crude palm oil saturated fatty acid (SFAs) mixture by using the methanol crystallization method. The conditions of methanol crystallization were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM) with the D-optimal design. The procedure of developing the solvent crystallization method was based on various different parameters. The fatty acid composition was carried out using a gas chromatography flame ionization detector (GC-FID) as fatty acid methyl esters. The highest percentage of SFAs was more than 96% with the percentage yield of 87.5% under the optimal conditions of fatty acids-to-methanol ratio of 1: 20 (w/v), the crystallization temperature of -15 °C, and the crystallization time of 24 hours, respectively. The composition of separated SFAs in the solid fraction contains 96.7% of palmitic acid (C16:0) as a dominant component and 3.3% of stearic acid (C18:0). The results showed that utilizing methanol as a crystallization solvent is recommended because of its high efficiency, low cost, stability, availability, comparative ease of recovery and its ability to form needle-like crystals which have good filtering and washing characteristics