IMPROVED SUSTAINABLE FRACTIONATION OF PALM OIL USING POLYGLYCEROL FATTY ACID ESTERS

A series of GRAS polyglycerol esters (PGE) has been produced and investigated for improving the dry fractionation of palm oil. Results show that the hydrophobic PGE can reduce the fractionation time and hence the energy consumed during fractionation. This will help to increase throughput for the process and the overall carbon footprint as a result of reducing energy use in the process. The fractionated oleins also exhibited better cloud points of between 7 degrees C and 8 degrees C, and an average iodine value of 57 Wijs. Crystal size was observed to be homogeneous, with the majority of the crystal sizes being in the range of 100 to 300 microns. It was also observed that this crystal size posed no filtration difficulty, as evidenced by the 76% to 78% olein yield obtained during pressing with a squeezing pressure of 5 bars. The stearins obtained were medium hard with iodine values between 33 and 35 Wijs, and slip melting points between 52 degrees C and 53 degrees C.