Vacuum separationof free fatty acids from high-free fatty acidscrude palm oil

Abstract

The high-free fatty acids crude palm oil (H-FFAs CPO) usedin this investigation mainly contained palmitic (42.07%), oleic (38.86%), linoleic (7.98%) and stearic (3.95%). Three 7.2-hour batches of vacuum distillation of 28-L H-FFAs CPO in a 40-L reactor were performed. For batch 1, 2 and 3, the beginning and setting temperatures were 27.4 and 230^oC; 29.5 and 250^oC; 30.5 and 250^oC, respectively. The vacuum pressures were20, 160 and 30 mmHg, respectively. The original and final FFAs content in the CPO were 25.70 and 14.34%; 14.95 and 10.60%; and 10.29 and 5.22%, respectively. The FFAs profile of the CPO before and after the process, and of the FFAs obtained from every batch were also reported. The FFAs in the CPO could be reduced from 25% to 5% within 15 hours for 1 batch of the propose reactorat temperature of 230^oC and pressure of 20 mmHg.