Processing of Fats and Oils Using Membrane Technologies

Abstract

Membrane technologies are now widely used in many separation processes in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Several processes, particularly pressure‐driven membrane processes including reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration are actively applied on an industrial scale for the recovery and purification of many food and bioproducts. Several applications of membrane technologies in fats and oils have received increasing attention due to many potential advantages such as lower cost and energy efficiency, flexibility of operation and eco friendliness. The main applications of membranes in fats and oils processing include solvent recovery, degumming, deacidification, recovery of byproducts, and waste treatment. While larger scale uses of membrane technologies are still limited, the development of commercial applications such as membrane‐based degumming, deacidification, and dewaxing are now been explored at an industrial scale. Added advantages of using membranes in vegetable oil processing include reduction in processing cost, better product quality, and increased yields. The development of new fabrication materials such as ceramic and polymer composites has made it possible to apply these new solvent stable membranes systems in most of the processing steps of fats and oils production including manufacture of biofuels.