engleski

Oil separation from soybean lecithin by ultrafiltration

The investigation of oil separation from commercial soybean lecithin was carried out on pilot plant ultrafiltration device (Romicon Company, USA)using the membranes with Romicon PM-10 porous hollow fibres. In unpolar solvents phospholipids form micellar agglomerations of 0.018-0.2 micrometer size and average 500 000 molecular mass. With a view to estimate the size of micelles developed by dissolving of lecithin in hexane before the ultrafiltration process, mixing of the commercial lecithin with the solvent (mass concentration 50 g/L) was performed during 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes, with the subsequent measuring of obtained micelles by means of a micrometer. In this experiment it was established that the micelles of greatest size were formed during 20 minute-mixing. Ultrafiltration was carried out with this solution (volume 5000 mL) at module working pressure of 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 2.6 bars. The obtained 1st concentrates (after filling up to 5000 mL with hexane) were subjected to the next ultrafiltration, getting 2nd concentrates, with which the same procedure was accomplished once more. The influence of pressure of ultrafiltration process on the oil separation efficiency was studdied. With the pressure increse in the module of the device, the duration of the process shortened, but oil content in the concentrate increased. Best results were obtained with working pressure of 1.4 bars. In the first step of ultrafiltration the separation efficiency was 56.4% (oil content was reduced from 37.8% to 16.5%), in the second step 35.8% (oil content was reduced from 16.5% to 10.6%) and in the third step 22.4% (the final oil content was 8.2%).

soybean lecithin; ultrafiltration; phospholipids

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