Separation of fatty acids from palm oil using organic solvent nanofiltration Pemisahan asid lemak daripada minyak kelapa sawit menggunakan penuras nano pelarut organik

Abstract

Distillation of fatty acid from traditional recovery method consumes a lot of energy. Membrane process is more preferred because it reduces energy consumption. In this work, the possibility of separating free fatty acid (FFA) from palm oil using organic solvent nanofiltration was studied. Various commercial organic solvent nanofiltration membranes were tested using dead end filtration for their ability to remove free fatty acid from palm oil/acetone mixture. In all membranes, triglycerides (TAG) were preferentially retained at increasing pressure, while FFA were permeated through the membrane. All the three membranes showed selective permeation of FFA, with Solsep 030306 gave the highest selectivity of FFA over triglycerides. The best fatty acid separation performance was achieved using NF030306 membrane with acetone at pressure in the range of 30 to 40 bar and 3.6 g/L concentration of fatty acid. Using NF030306 membrane, 55% of low fatty acid and 87% of triglycerides were rejected from the system. Good separation was achieved at high pressure and concentration. We successfully demonstrated the separation of fatty acid separation from palm oil using organic solvent nanofiltration could be achieved.