Chemical interesterification of palm oil and palm kernel oil in the presence of the DAPTS-MCM-41 catalyst. Regiospecific distribution and composition in triacylglycerols

Nowadays chemical interesterification is the most commonly used technology to adjust the triacylglyceride composition of vegetable oil mixtures without the formation oftransisomers. However, this technology generates a considerable amount of effluents during the separation of the homogeneous catalyst from the final products. Consequently, the substitution of these catalysts by heterogeneous catalysts has, from the ecological point of view, become important. The objective of this work was to evaluate the DAPTS-MCM-41 catalyst in the interesterification reaction of palm oil and palm kernel oil by monitoring the triacylglyceride (TAG) compositions. The TAGs were evaluated by high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), while the regiospecific distribution of the fatty acids in the glycerol structure was investigated by the(13)C NMR technique. The fatty acid randomization was confirmed by the variation of the saturated fatty acid concentrations in thesn-2position as well as by the variation in the triacylglycerol compositions.