InfoSAWT, JAKARTA – De-acidification is the method that may solve the limit from deodoratin process which has been available. Solvent de-acidification is the easiest, simplest, and most economic process.
One process in crude palm oil (CPO) process is deodorizer, which is about to take out free fatty acid (FFB), unwanted substance or component, including the component that makes odor without damaging oil from the processed CPO.
Deodorization is the important phase in refining CPO because it would influence the quality of the end product, such as, organoleptic characteristics, stability, numbers of nutrients, and functional characteristics.
The market demands to minimize the making of trans fatty acid and maintain tocopherol or tocotrienol substance would be the challenge to develop deodoration technology in efficient ways (small cost, high yield to get, and much cheaper supporting tools).
Deodorization is a heating process (>200oC) for vegetable oils in high temperature, in certain time, and low pressure. These are physical process where many components would easily evaporate, and would vanish but some chemical and thermal effects could also happen.
Vanishing FFA from CPO would represent the simplest phase but difficult in refining process because it determines the quality of end products. Deodorization would have something to do with the economy of CPO production because every insufficient thing in the process would massively influence the next process.
De-acidification is the method that would solve every available process.
An alternative of approach could be done to get vegetable oil de-acidification, such as, de-acidification biological – enzymatic, de-acidification re-esterification (Chemical modification), membrane de-acidification, supercritical liquid extraction de-acidification, and solvent de-acidification.
De-acidification applying solvent extraction (liquid-liquid) is the easiest and simple process of others becauseit could be practiced in romm temperature and atmospheric pressure and energy consumption in refining unit could be reduced without losing the nutrient substance from its natural composition. (*)
